The Murder Trial of Dr John Bodkin Adams: Part II

Dr Adams’s defence counsel Geoffrey Lawrence became obsessed by the difficulty of ensuring that the massive pre-arrest publicity did not prevent Adams receiving a fair trial. His fears were exacerbated by an error for which Patrick Devlin bears primary responsibility. Soon after Devlin was appointed trial judge, he met Sir Reginald Manningham-Buller, who was both the Attorney-General and the prosecuting counsel in the case, in the absence of Lawrence, to discuss procedural questions. Manningham-Buller revealed that while he would not tender evidence concerning the death of Mrs Hullett during the Morrell trial, if Adams were acquitted he intended to prosecute him for the alleged murder of Hullett. Devlin then wrote to Lawrence about the procedural questions.

On February 26, 1957, Lawrence went to Devlin and criticised him strongly for seeing the Attorney-General in his absence. Apparently Devlin did not tell Lawrence what Sir Reginald said about abandoning the tender of the…