Lead Story
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Between June and August, 34-year-old Jonathan Harris, an ex-con and high school dropout, acted as his own lawyer in three Philadelphia felony trials and won them all–even beating a murder charge that could have sent him to death row. (At press time he was also scheduled to defend himself in an unrelated 2001 firearms case.) The prosecutor from the murder trial blamed the verdict on unreliable witnesses and vowed to retry Harris on several lesser charges related to the crime; in response Harris taunted him, saying, “Are you sure you don’t want to quit while you’re ahead?”
Wimpy Americans
In August in Skowhegan, Maine, conflicting stories arose concerning the aggravated assault of 67-year-old Paul Vicnaire. Police charged Vicnaire’s “drinking companion” Jean Lampron, 46, with repeatedly stabbing him, but she claimed the man’s ex-wife had done it. Vicnaire, on the other hand, said his ex-wife had ordered the stabbing, but that Lampron had carried it out. Compromising the credibility of both these explanations was the fact that Vicnaire’s ex-wife had recently died.
The Legislature in Action
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): illustration/Shawn Belschwender.
