Court Martial -- Cogley's defense strategy

Hi folks,

I love the episode Court Martial, but one thing has always bothered me: Cogley seems to have NO defense strategy until Spock & McCoy burst into the court room with info to save Kirk's hide.

He calls no witnesses (except Kirk) and cross-examines no one. At one point someone in the court room asks him if he's ready to begin his defense and his reply is very cryptic: "No... but I may be getting ready..."

What did THAT mean??? A few minutes later he's practically ready to throw in the towel. It almost seems as if something had been cut out of the final version.

Anyone else puzzled by this? Thoughts?

 

Yeah, as a lawyer myself he kinda bugs me. Maybe it would have been better if they hadn't had to cobble the episode together - supposedly, Cook had a lot of trouble remembering his lines.

 

I agree. My understanding was he begins the trial thinking the computer evidence against Kirk is questionable. He figures something got hosed in that data recorder, but he won't win over the jury by explaining to them it could have been a computer error.

So instead of focusing on the computer he chooses to trumpet Kirk's virtue and esteem, hoping the jury will consider Kirk's reputation with unspoken doubts about the computer in their minds.

When they see the video recording, the prosecution's case becomes stronger since a mechanical failure would have had to effect the data log and the visual recording at the same time. It's hard to envision any random error that would change the sequence of buttons Kirk pressed. So the paragon-of-virtue defense will no longer work.

Cogley says he may be getting ready because he's formulating an idea that someone plotted to frame Kirk and may or may not have found a way to kill Finney. But it doesn't have any facts. And blindly nitpicking the computer was precisely what has been avoiding b/c he thinks it paradoxically elevates the computer by making it central to the case.

When Spock and Bones discovered specific evidence a human being sabotaged the computer, Finney springs into action b/c he has a human to focus on beyond instead of just focusing on the computer.

 

I think somebody dropped the ball during the rewrite process at that point of the script.

 

...Of course, it would be a perfectly valid plot development if it turned out that Cogley was senile and incompetent and had no strategy, just a real passion for seeing justice done. Or then a real passion for being the centerpiece of attention.

It would also be a perfectly valid plot element if the above didn't "turn out" but was implicitly understood.

Timo Saloniemi

 

Cogley's poor defense might be an example of Shaw's ambition as a lawyer. IIRC, wasn't it Shaw who steered Kirk towards Cogley in the first place? Regardless of Kirk being an old friend, she wanted to win the case. Kirk having a competent lawyer would have defeated her purposes.

Shaw was being machiavellian.

 

first off, this thread is hilarious.

Yeah, Cogley really comes across as pretty incompetent. I think with the book collection and all he's SUPPOSED to be charmingly old-fashioned, but it's really more like he's good at making irrelevant speeches and that's about it.

 

I would say that means the character of Cogley portrayed most lawyers pretty accurately.

 

Balls.
As it happens - and this is either sad or funny, I don't know which - I always channel Shatner as Kirk when giving an opening or closing argument. So far, so good.

 

Oddly enough, Shatner seems to have played lawyers for the vast majority of his career, or at least more often than any other type of character.

 

A legal writing instructor of mine showed that bit of "Court Martial" with all the books to drive some sort of point home about libraries being important (which is sort of a big duh), although in the context of the 21st century, let alone the 23d, Cogley's extreme antipathy toward computerized databases comes off as slightly mad in itself.

And the other parts of the episode look like they could be used to directly teach how not to do whatever it is Cogley is doing--failing to cross, failing to develop a rudimentary theory of the case, I believe some significant failures to object,* and most horribly failing to even cursorily look at materials that had to have been provided in discovery** and getting surprised by a video recording that is the centerpiece of the prosecution's case.

*At least based on the FRE, which may or may not be applicable--and I might be thinking of "Measure of a Man," which is actually the worst depiction of any possible legal system I've ever seen on television. And this including the last episode of Clerks: The Animated Series and Harvey Birdman.
**Assuming it is not the Soviet Federation of Planets, anyway. Procurator will respond to discovery requests in timely fashion, after verdict is reached.

 

So Cogley didn't win the case the right way?

 

The episode may be a poor representation of how one's lawyer should handle a case, but it's also a pretty good depiction of how military justice proceeds from the initial charge, the preliminary investigation, and moving to a general court martial. Stone offering Kirk a ground assignment is basically him offering Kirk an Article 15 alternative.

 

Cogley did win the case at all. The defendant and a couple of his friends did, by locating evidence and ultimately finding the "victim" of the supposed crime, Cogley was a lump in a chair.

One of the things the episode got right was after the official inquiry, but prior to being charged, was Kirk exercising his rights by requesting of his superior, that he be court martialed in order to clear his name. The decision was taken out of Stone's hands. Civilians, as I understand it, don't have this ability.

 

Well, presumably his surprise in court was due to his not having access to the materials beforehand - my guess is the writer of this episode knew little of the law. He gets something of a pass, since none of us can say what 23rd century military justice allows or requires.

The antipathy toward computers seems absurd by today's standards of legal research, but I think we didn't realize back then how impossible it would be to keep up without computers. The computer -- "the machine," as it was put in Conscience of the King - was supposed to free us. Instead, it simply made tasks faster, and now more is required of us than ever before.

I was in one of the last classes in my law school to do without LEXIS or Westlaw. We had to shepardize each case by looking at three different books/supplements!

 

Well... I suppose that is better than channelling Shatner as Denny Crane.

And on that note, I must confess to a certain degree of envy. If I had it to do over again, I'd have been a lawyer but I tend to think being in my late 30s is a bit late to go to law school.

 

And of course, having your old girlfriend as the prosecutor.

 

I'm not too familiar with the military justice code of America or otherwise, but I would have to assume most present militaries have discovery procedures (and obligatory disclosure). I can't imagine a fair trial system without discovery.

Yeah, but they made the general process more convenient (as far as I can tell at this juncture).

Alan Turing and Al Gore saved me.

 

I think it may refer to a small subplot that was deleted, full details (as ever) on the draft scripts site. Basically, Cogley suspects that Finney is alive a lot sooner than is revealed in the final episode, following his conversation with Jamie. His cryptic reply may be the beginnings of his plan to flush Finney out (using Jamie as bait). This was expanded upon in a (deleted) conversation between Kirk and Cogley, at the start of the final courtroom scene.

Of course, it still doesn't explain why, one minute later, he's on the verge of giving up!

 

Right. Just after Jame Finney shows up an apologizes for her emotional outburst earlier, Cogley starts to smell a rat. After Kirk asks Cogley if he's ready to go back into court, the script says:

CLOSE - COGLEY

Can't put his finger on it, but something is nagging at him. For the time being, however, he'll let it germinate.

COGLEY
Not entirely. But I may be getting ready.

The episode then cuts to Spock winning at chess and then he and McCoy rushing to beam down to inform Cogley. (Well, they rushed, but they stopped to change into their dress uniforms first.) But there was another scene between Kirk and Cogley just before the dinging of the courtroom bell gets the court going again:

ANGLE - KIRK, COGLEY

Kirk is doodling on a pad. Impatient, he throws down the pencil. Cogley doesn't seem to notice.

COGLEY
Jim...how well do you know that
girl? Jame - Finney's daughter.

KIRK
Since she was a child.

COGLEY
(musing)
I suppose that might explain her
attitude. Curious though -
children don't usually take such
a dispassionate view of the death
of a parent.

KIRK
She didn't at first. She was
out for my blood. Almost
hysterical. She kept saying
murderer - murderer.

COGLEY
(almost a take)
Why didn't you tell me that
before?

KIRK
I didn't think it was important.
Is it?

ANGLE IN ON Cogley.

COGLEY
(thoughtfully)
I don't know... yet.

WIDER ANGLE

Stone rings the court to order.

Later, after the court reconvenes on the Enterprise, just before they start the heartbeat, white sound experiment, Cogley has to leave on a "atter of vital importance to the purpose of this court." But the script has a moment of quiet dialog between Kirk and Cogley that no one else can hear, just before Cogley leaves.

TWO SHOT - COGLEY, KIRK

A conference between lawyer and client in the courtroom, which no one else can hear.

COGLEY
It's in your hands now.

KIRK
At this point I'll try anything.
(incredulously)
But the idea of Finney being
alive --

COGLEY
I began to suspect that when
you told me about the change of
heart his daughter had about
you. If she knew he wasn't dead,
she had no reason to blame you
for anythin.

KIRK
But how could she know?

COGLEY
You said she had been reading
her father's papers... probably
the general tone of what he had
written. A man suffering delusions
of persecution wants to set down
his complaints. She read them
... she know the kind of man you
are... and she's fundamentally
fair and decent.
(beat)
Or maybe it was just instinct.
Thank God there's that much
of the animal left in us.

So, Spock was able to figure out that the computer was reprogrammed--either accidentally or deliberately. But I think it was Cogley who figured out who did it. If things hadn't all worked out and Kirk had been found guilty, I think he probably would have been exonerated at some point. Relisticalkly, how long could Finney have stayed disappeared?