Easing the passing: The trial of Dr John Bodkin Adams

by Patrick, Baron Devlin

Excellent Book

Genres: True Crime, Nonfiction, Crime, Law

256 pages, Hardcover

First published June 13, 1985

About the author

Patrick Arthur Devlin, Baron Devlin, PC was a British lawyer, judge and jurist. He worked as junior barrister for William Jowitt while Jowitt was Attorney-General, and by the late 1930s he had become a successful commercial lawyer. During the Second World War he worked for various ministries of the UK Government, and in 1948 Jowitt (by then Lord Chancellor) made Devlin (then aged 42) a High Court judge, the second-youngest such appointment in the 20th century. Devlin was knighted later that year.
In 1960, Devlin was made a Lord Justice of Appeal, and the following year he became a Law Lord and life peer as Baron Devlin, of West Wick in the County of Wiltshire.
After retirement, Baron Devlin was a judge on the Administrative Tribunal of the International Labour Organization until 1986. He was also chairman of the Press Council from 1964–69, and High Steward of Cambridge University from 1966 until 1991. He also spent time writing about law and history, especially the interaction of law with moral philosophy, and the importance of juries.

Reviews

[Nicole C. · Rating 3 out of 5]

John Adams was a family doctor in England in the 1940s-50s. After having a Mrs. Morrell die under his care in the early part of the 50s, he was put on trial for her murder in 1956. In his past were several others who had died under drug-induced circumstances, as well, which led the police to train their sights on him. Especially since many of his patients bequeathed money and objects to him. In the case of Mrs. Morrell, a woman in her eighties who had suffered a severe stroke and was being given heroin and morphine, she was leaving him a silver chest, and at one point it was rumored her old Rolls Royce. She seems rather contentious based on her adding and then cutting the good doctor out of her will, and then adding him once again. It was at this point that the patient was given some rather large doses of injectable drugs, the same heroin and morphine, under which amount she lapsed into a coma and died. Was Dr. Adams guilty of murdering her? Was intent criminal?

The book itself was written years later by the trial judge who presided over the case. It is at times a bit dry, but it is an intriguing look into British trial law at that time. The judge also gives his own opinion on the case, looking back upon it years later.

On a personal note, I was rather giddy to find that the University of Virginia's Law Library was willing to loan this out to my local library for me to read!

[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating description of the trial of Dr John Adams by the trial judge. This book was hugely controversial when it was written, and can be dry to read but was really interesting to see how the cogs of the law worked in Britain at the time.

[Ig-88 · Rating 5 out of 5]

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