Linda Deutsch, one of the deans of American courtroom reporting, covered criminal trials for The Associated Press for nearly 50 years. She was a master of the concise opening paragraph — known as the lede — and the evocative sentence or two that followed, in the best tradition of wire-service reporting.
Here is how Ms. Deutsch, who died on Sunday at 80, began articles reporting verdicts that the whole country seemed to be awaiting in a state of high anxiety.
Jan. 26, 1971
Charles Manson, Followers, Guilty of Slayings
Charles Manson, shaggy leader of a cult-like clan of hippie types, was convicted Monday of first-degree murder and conspiracy along with three women followers in the savage slayings of actress Sharon Tate and six others.
The state said it will ask the death penalty for all.
The defendants, who staged wild outbursts during their seven-month trial, sat passively as verdicts were returned on the 27 counts against them.
March 21, 1976
Heiress Convicted on Two Counts After Jury Deliberates for 12 Hours
Patricia Hearst, a kidnap victim who said she committed crimes to save herself from death, yesterday was found guilty of armed bank robbery by a jury that did not believe her story.
The heiress to a vast publishing fortune listened impassively as the verdict was read in a hushed courtroom. Her sisters wept, but Miss Hearst remained dry-eyed.
“Oh, my God,” gasped Catherine Hearst, who had begged so often for her daughter’s return from the terrorist underground and took the stand to defend her as “a warm and loving girl.”
April 29, 1992
Officers Acquitted in Videotaped Beating of Rodney King
Four white Los Angeles police officers were acquitted of all but one assault charge Wednesday in the videotaped beating of black motorist Rodney King. A mistrial was declared on one count.
The verdicts, in the seventh day of deliberations, came after a year of political uproar sparked by the graphic videotape of a black man being beaten by white officers, denounced in many quarters as brutality. The backlash brought down the Los Angeles police chief.
Oct. 3, 1995
Simpson Acquitted, Freed, Vows to Hunt Down Killers
O.J. Simpson went home a free man Tuesday, spared by an unpredictable jury to pick up a life of privilege instead of a life in prison. Acquitted of murdering his ex-wife and her friend, he pledged to track down the real killers who are “out there somewhere.”
In a courtroom on the verge of exploding with emotion, a hush fell as Judge Lance Ito’s clerk, Dierdre Robertson, read the two words: “Not guilty.”
June 13, 2005
Michael Jackson Acquitted of Molesting Teenage Boy, Returns to Neverland a Free Man
Wanly blowing kisses of gratitude to his screaming fans, Michael Jackson left court a free man Monday and went back to Neverland to pick up the pieces of his shattered career and image.
Jackson, 46, was cleared of all charges in his child-molestation trial, hearing the words “not guilty” uttered 14 times in a deathly still courtroom. The Peter Pan of pop music could have gotten nearly 20 years behind bars if convicted of charges that he molested a 13-year-old cancer survivor at Neverland in 2003.
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