Intriguing courtroom drama somewhat marred by unconvincing dialogue for the defendant and an implausible bit of forensic science. The inner conflict of the attorney makes for a nice hook, though.

An attorney with a reputation for getting his clients acquitted of armed robbery charges takes a complex case in which a young man is accused of stabbing a man who later dies. The young man's father is convinced that he is innocent. He claims to be innocent, but the attorney himself has doubts from the outset.

An overworked lawyer is persuaded to take the case of a defendant who insists he is innocent. The lawyer is not convinced and orders a special test be performed on the murder weapon.

The best thing that I can say about this episode is that the ending was a mystery until the end. Very good listen--4 stars.

A young thug is charged with murder in the stabbing death of an old man. He is part of a gang who were identified at the scene and eye witnesses finger his as the one who had the knife. A criminal defense attorney who has defended muggers successfully in the past is, ironically, recovering from a stab wound after being mugged himself. He is reconsidering his clientele and looking forward to a vacation when the father of the young thug approaches him with all sincerity and pleads his son’s innocence and asks for his representation in court. The lawyer reluctantly agrees and prepares a defense case for a client of whose innocence he is unconvinced. Good courtroom drama, well paced.

A prosecutor can't call the defendant to the stand! Fifth Amendment and all. I was surprised that the test was thrown out in court. In real life it would have been, but stuff like that gets through in popular court dramas. Courtroom drama, no supernatural elements.

The first few seconds repeat. You may want to re-edit this show. Questions: A boy scout knife is not that large. (Unless they were bigger back then), can you kill someone with one jab of a lil boyscout knife. (Maybe Rambo was a Boy Scout?) Is there a test on the knife for blood? Unless you use bleach, blood usually leaves traces. Do they compare stab wounds with the knife. (Basic CSI even for the 70s) A good lawyer would ask these questions. Not believeable!!

Great ending, and a satisfying one. Things aren't tied up in a nice little neat bow. SPOILER WARNING: I like how the accused is utterly confident in his innocence, and--until the end--the dad seemed to be, too, until he showed how much he actually trusted his boy. I didn't see it coming.

An excellent story! Held my interest and the ending was very satisfying. Pretty good recording quality too.

Even back then they could've matched the knife wound to the knife itself (for the most part). I do think that the test he suggested would indeed have been thrown out for the reasons specified (but I'm not a lawyer, nor do I play one on TV or the radio). I did like the part of the father - he kept saying what his son said MUST be true, and yet he didn't believe him enough for the test to be done. My impression of it was that the son was either really stupid (allowing the test when he knew he was guilty), or really innocent (knowing full well he was innocent). It seemed like more of the latter than the former to me.

**SPOILERS*** I agree with your final statement and that's why this is one of the saddest episodes. Their relationship will never be the same. Son can't prove a negative. And he knows his dad didn't believe his word in the first place.

List of CBSRMT episodes aired on ROSH HASHANAH: 09/17/1974 #0149-Thicker Than Water 09/06/1975 #0277-Don't Let It Choke You 09/25/1976 #0489-The Corpse That Would Not Die 09/13/1977 #0708-The Way To Dusty Death 10/02/1978 #0900-The Forever Alley 09/22/1979 #0586-Jimmy Valentine's Gamble 09/11/1980 #1087-A Private Demon 09/29/1981 #1214-Waking And Sleeping 09/18/1982 #????

This is a very good courtroom drama that is at heart a tale of the human relations of fathers and sons. Russ, I am very curious why did you comment above about the episodes airing on Rosh Hashana? Is there some significance to those episodes that you notice?

Pretty good episode , nice twist at the end. BTW if anyone is curious of the football game commercial , the Jets beat the Bears 23 - 21 that day :)

I enjoyed this episode. I did not see this ending coming. Nice twist at the end. I gave this episode 5 stars. This episode came in very clear. Very strong signal. I also loved all the commercials. Yes Steve, I was curious who won the Bears Jets game. Thanks!

I love the fact that the commercials and the news of the day (at the end) is left in tact. It is fascinating to me to hear the opinion in the aftermath of the pardon of Richard Nixon. I was just a young teen when these shows were originally aired. I listened to them nearly every night as I went to sleep. I love the innocence of the commercials, too. Thanks for providing them.

Mr. Slesar knocked this one out of the park. Such great twists are something that most television murder mysteries didn't touch back then. This is more like an episode of LAW & ORDER. Kudos to the actors, as (some of them, at least) didn't take the typical 1940s - 1950s "gangster" type delivery protocol.

Lawyer Nicholas Wedge, who specializes in defending accused muggers, seems certain to lose a case—eyewitnesses saw young Benny Bleeker with a knife at the time the victim, who later died, was mugged. To prove to the jury — and himself — that Benny was not involved, Wedge volunteers to dip Exhibit A — the knife — into a solution of reduced phenolphthalein, the most sensitive of all blood detection chemicals. If the liquid turns pink, it’s all over for Benny.

A perfectly acceptable amount of implausibility aside, this episode is absolutely top notch. Most certainly in my top 10 episodes. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend it as a first program, since it’s not very representative of the show generally.

Aside from the voice actors who played the lawyer and his secretary, the rest of the voice actors were totally annoying, they really seem to drag out the dialogue. Some implausible parts but I never saw the ending coming and that made it a 2 1/2 star episode

The episode was ok, but no Perry Mason. The ending was interesting in that it would appear the father didn't believe his son after all, so was he really innocent? Also a boy scout knife? Glad they left in the commercials and the news report, they made it worth the listen.

I remember reading this in an Alfred Hitchcock muster magazine. Made for a good episode, even though I knew the ending. I love when shows keep the news and ads from the original run.