The Pittsburgh Press (August 7, 1945)
Gracie Allen Reporting
By Gracie Allen
HOLLYWOOD – I’ve been reading about the Petain trial and I honestly think the French way of trying people is better than ours.
Take the jury, for instance. When members of the Petain jury got bored with the testimony, they read newspapers or worked crossword puzzles or just plain went to sleep. Over here the poor things have to listen, even if they don’t know which end of the plaintiff to mark with their ballots.
George says that in our courts only the lawyers can yell and I believe him, because George, like most husbands, is an authority on yelling. But in those French courts anybody – judge, jury, witnesses, spectators – can get into it and yell. We talk about justice being blind, but in France it must be deaf, too.
Anyhow, I like the spirit of everybody joining in the game and if the prisoner is found guilty, he doesn’t mind so much going to jail where things are quiet.