Lenny Bruce Demands a Jury!
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April 23, 1964, Vol. IX, No. 27
Bruce's Lawyers Want Jury Trial
A motion for a jury trial is being filed by the attorneys defending Lenny Bruce on obscenity charges brought against him in connection with his recent performances at the Cafe au Go Go, 152 Bleecker Street.
The motion asks that the case be tried before a jury in the Supreme Court, New York County, on the grounds that the case will be far-reaching in effect and become a precedent regulating theatres and places of entertainment in New York. The motion also maintains that Bruce has a constitutional right to be tried before a jury and that the social value of his work precludes its suppression under the First and Fourteenth Amendments of the Constitution.
"Where the results of the prosecution will involve a question of censors," the motion states, "the expression of the public judgment should come from the best expression of that judgment -- the jury."
Bruce is being represented by Ephraim London and Martin Garbus of the firm Brennan, London and Buttenwieser.
[Each weekday morning, we post an excerpt from another issue of the Voice, going in order from our oldest archives. Visit our Clip Job archive page to see excerpts back to 1956.]
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