Edward Kane, Advocate in The Hanged Man. Chapter 2: Three Furrowed Brows
Exactly ninety-eight minutes later, a very blurry Edward Kane (finally restored to the appearance of coherence by four cups of Mr Horse’s preternaturally strong tea) was sitting in the offices of Phipps and Phipps, solicitors, confirming instructions for the emergency court hearing. At three o’clock that day.
The head no longer hurt, but it was fuzzy. He examined his notes from the consultation with the solicitors: ‘So – what you are telling me is that this chap, um, Dr Jack Balloch killed his father…’
Philip Phipps, solicitor, jumped in: ‘He was accused of killing his father.’
Kane consulted his notes: ‘He was convicted of killing his father.’
The solicitor sat back: ‘That must be conceded.’
Kane went on: ‘Convicted of killing his father with fatal dose of what he thought was “medicine”. Sentenced to death. Mounted the gallows. Duly hanged. Pronounced dead at the scene. Then, um, then…appeared to wake up in the cart – on the way to the dissection rooms.’
Phipps nodded: ‘You have it in brief, Mr Kane.’
‘And what do you want me to do?’
The solicitor tapped the feather pen against his lips: ‘That’s what we were hoping you could tell us, Mr Kane. The university carter took Dr Balloch straight back to Calton Jail because no-one seemed to know what to do with him in this situation. So they locked him up in the meantime. That’s why there is the court hearing at three o’clock. To work out what to do with him. The man who appears to have come back from the dead…’
****
‘So – where is he at the moment, Mr Kane?’
Three judges. Lord Eriskay (smiling and benevolent) in the chair, Lord Lothian (ruddy faced and near-apoplectic) on his right and Lord Crumlish (like a crude waxen doll of a judge) on his left.
Lord Eriskay sat back in his chair as he quizzed the young Advocate. Kane read from his papers: ‘He is currently being held on remand at the Calton Prison, my lords.’
Three judges but no single sign of sympathy for the doomed doctor. Lord Eriskay in the centre, tapping his finger on his lips. Lord Lothian on his right, still recovering from a good deal of making merry the previous evening. Lord Crumlish on his left. Not moving. Saying nothing. Eyes firmly shut. Like someone in the midst of a deep sleep.
The judge, Lothian, of beetroot complexion and clearly the worse for wear leaned forward: ‘Hardly “on remand”, Mr Kane. Your client – if we can call him that – is a convicted criminal. He would be serving a sentence.’
Kane nodded. ‘Except the sentence here, my lords is not a sentence of imprisonment, it is a sentence of being “hanged until dead”. And that sentence has been carried out. Dr Balloch has served the sentence. Thus, his status of being held in prison – against his will – is more akin to remand while…’ Kane faltered for a moment. ‘while…’
Lord Crumlish, until this moment mimicking the dead, decided to speak from The Beyond, his lips barely moving: ‘While we try to work out what to do with him, Mr Kane – that is what you are trying to say..’
Kane bowed: ‘My lord Crumlish has expressed the situation with admirable brevity.’
Lord Lothian – an innumerable number of ants in his plants – shifted in his chair. ‘So what is it you want us to do, sir?’
‘I am petitioning the court for a judgment on his status and for his release in the meantime.’
Lord Eriskay sat back in his chair and nodded: ‘Rather like our English brethren are faced with a writ of Habeas Corpus, I suppose’.
Kane had no real idea of what that meant, but nodded anyway, since it seemed to be getting his argument somewhere.
Again, Lord Crumlish on the end seemed to speak from the beyond: ‘Restraint of the person requires to be unlawful.’
Lord Eriskay in the chair smiled down at the young Advocate: ‘The learned Lord Crumlish reminds me that – in the English proceedings, the detention of the individual in question requires to be unlawful. Are you saying, Mr Kane, that in this case, the detention of Dr Balloch, a convicted murderer, is unlawful?’
Kane spoke carefully: ‘I am saying, my lords, that that in all the circumstances, the current imprisonment of the doctor is, indeed, unlawful…’
Lord Lothian had heard enough and began to splutter: ‘Have you no shame, sir? Have you no shame? The man of whom you speak is a blackguard. A man who killed his own father for pecuniary gain. A man sentenced to death by a jury of his peers…’
Kane weathered the storm: ‘I cannot gainsay that, my lord. But Dr Balloch was sentenced to be hanged until dead. And was then hanged. And was then pronounced dead at the scene by a qualified physician. The sentence was death. He has now served that sentence. In my – most respectful – submission, he has served the sentence. Thus, the Law has no authority to detain him further.’
The judges looked at each other. Clearly, they had no idea of what to do. Kane pressed what he thought was his advantage: ‘If the sentence had been, for example, ten years in prison, then there would be no justification in keeping him in prison for longer than that ten-year period. He would be released having served his sentence.’
Lothian shifted uncomfortably in his seat. Kane continued:
‘In the case of Doctor John Balloch, the sentence was one of being hanged until dead. Dr Balloch was hanged. He was pronounced dead. He has served his sentence. In my respectful submission, he must now be released.
Three judicial heads nodding. But three furrowed brows.
TOMORROW: The Lessons of ‘Half-Hangit Maggie’