Behind Jury Doors

In a highly publicized trial, Dr. Emil Lanfield is sentenced to be executed for the murder of his nurse, Judith Carter, with whom he had a secret love affair for two years. Reporter Steve Mannon of the Post visits the doctor's pretty daughter Elsa, and although at first she resents his invasion of her privacy and breaks down crying, he convinces her of his concern. Together they visit her mother in the hospital where she is dying. Because Steve believes that significant facts did not come to light in the trial, he lets his city editor publish his story about Elsa and her mother to arouse sympathy and enough interest to reopen the case. At a speakeasy near the courtroom, a drunken reporter from a rival paper, the News , obliquely states that if $25,000 was planted around the country by the right person, Lanfield could get off. The reporter then tells Steve that the News had been about to launch a campaign against the present district attorney, George Fisher, whom the Post publisher is supporting in his bid for re-election, when the murder story broke and gave Fisher a chance for good publicity. Steve brings food and a cat as a present to Elsa, but when she reads the sensational story he wrote about her, she asks him to go and take the food with him. She keeps the cat, however, whom she names Elmer, but Steve, in frustration, pushes its face in a bowl of milk. Steve returns to the speakeasy, where the owner, Gus Mauger, reveals that Halliday, the man in charge of the jury on Lanfield's case, brought the jury, who were supposed to be segregated in a hotel, to the speakeasy and, after getting them drunk, pressured them to deliver a quick verdict. Steve tries to convince Gus's wife "Ma" to get him to sign an affidavit about Halliday, but she refuses until he offers her $3,000. Steve, who plans to use $1,500 of his own money and raise the rest, tries to get Fisher to allow an appeal, but Fisher refuses and complains to the Post 's publisher, Arthur Corbett, who then threatens to fire Steve if he doesn't lay off the story. Steve surmises that Fisher and Corbett bet $25,000 that Lanfield would get the chair and goes to the News with his story. The News publisher and managing editor, however, tell him that he must have evidence before they publish his story. Steve then learns that Halliday has offered Gus and Ma more than $3,000 to hide out. As Steve runs into Elsa on the street, gangsters shoot at them. Steve suffers a wound on his wrist, which Elsa washes. She kisses his hand as he takes hers, and he tells her that the editor of the News has promised to take Gus's affidavit to a judge to get the case reopened. After Gus is killed by two thugs hired by Halliday, Ma, who escaped their hiding place, agrees to sign the affidavit for free. Corbett and Fisher meet Halliday and relate that there is now a warrant out for his arrest. When Halliday threatens to squeal, Corbett tries to pay Halliday off, but Steve arrives with the police. Halliday shoots Corbett and Fisher before jumping out a ten-story window to his death. Steve is now worried that a new trial will be tough to get; however, Mrs. Lanfield, from her hospital bed, confesses that she killed Judith Carter. She relates that Carter, wanting to take her husband away, confronted her; when Carter started toward her, Mrs. Lanfield got a gun from a desk and shot her. Lanfield then arrived, took the gun away and made her promise not to talk. After her mother dies, Elsa kisses her forehead and then cries in Steve's arms. He says he'll be there to help, and she says she can't ever do without him.