NOT A REBEL BUT A GLADIATOR

Prominent criminal lawyer Israel Kahn plans a radical change of behaviour in the near future, toning down what he calls his 'sometimes deliberate mischievousness' in court, to embracing the role of a more 'scrupulous and meticulous' minister of justice.

In an interview, Khan, 54, revealed that he will be applying for senior counsel status - the revered silk gown awarded to senior advocates, and which brings with it perquisites not extended to the other junior lawyers.

"I would have to behave myself in court, not that I misbehave, but sometimes I am deliberately mischievous. The moment I take silk, my conduct in court would be scrupulous. I would have to dot my i's and cross my t's," he said.

This attorney, of 20 years experience practising mostly criminal law, said he got into that arena not by his choice, but rather "it is more like criminal law chose me and I willingly went along its path for justice and fair play."

After being "chosen" and called to the Bar on October 19, 1979, Khan embraced his position, squeezing as much success out of it as he could.

He has won about 185 murder trials in his career. An impressive figure, but he hopes he can make it to 200 by January 1, 2001. Within the last three weeks alone, he has secured acquittals in all five of the capital cases in which he appeared.

Before donning his robes, Khan was a magistrate clerk. He used to take written notes in the court of magistrate Clebert Brooks when the lower courts were at the old Magistrate's Court Building on St Vincent Street, Port-of-Spain.

He said that sometimes he used to stop writing and find himself just listening to the evidence. He said Magistrate Brooks (as he then was) and attorney Senior Counsel Theodore Guerra realized his love for the law and encouraged him to study it.

Khan, who also studied in Canada where most of his relatives are now resident, accepted this "learned" advice and went to law school.

He said that in Canada he was a rebel, sporting an "Afro-type" hairstyle while he was part of the Black Power Movement there.

That dissident behaviour returned with him to the legal fraternity in Trinidad. It also caused other attorneys to avoid him; all except Alice Yorke Soo-Hon (now a High Court judge).

He said, "I am a lone wolf. The truth is that I am a sole practitioner because no one, with the exception of Alice Yorke Soo-Hon, wanted to associate with me in my early years at the Bar. I was a rebel. I was crude, recalcitrant and obnoxious.

"I had a chip on my shoulder. When I started to rock the boat all lawyers moved away from me like if I was inflicted with leprosy."

He said he had a penchant for doing odd things, such as openly advertising for clients and going the forest to bring back clients who were on the run and were afraid of being killed by the police.

Smiling as he sat at his St Vincent Street office, which has an open view of e Hall of Justice, Khan said, "I wore the wrong clothes to court, like sneakers and washed out jeans, with very bright suspenders holding up my pants. I had this huge "Indo-Afro" and my beard was unkept and scraggly looking. I was doing a lot of foolish things to get attention.

"But one thing which amazed the profession was the fact that I kept winning cases, especially the murder cases. Alice Yorke Soo-Hon and I worked for 17 years at the Criminal Bar and let me be a little boastful, I have earned the right to be a little ostentatious here. This country has never seen a better team of criminal defence lawyers as Israel B. Khan and Alice Yorke Soo-Hon. Since her elevation to the Bench over the last two years, I am entirely on my own.

"My colleagues at the Criminal bar are telling me that I now enjoy the status of primus inter pares (first among equals) with the senior junior attorneys. But I believe they are pegging me behind Senior Counsel."

He said Dr. Aeneas Wills (former judge), Guerra and Mitra Sinanan QC, gave him "invaluable assistance" in his early years, but he added, "As the song goes, I am doing it my way."

He recalled that in 1980, one year after becoming a lawyer, he was found guilty of contempt of court by a Couva magistrate. Khan said he was defending a Coastguardsman who had knocked down the famous calypsonian Maestro. He said he and the magistrate had a verbal clash and he accused the magistrate of not being a fit and proper person to adjudicate on matters. He said the magistrate found him guilty of contempt of court and he reported the magistrate to the Judicial and Legal Services Commission. He said they eventually 'patched up' their differences and charges were dropped on both sides.

He said he grew up in humble surroundings but with a fierce attitude, which remained with him.

Asked if he still considered himself a rebel, Khan replied, "In my early years at the Criminal Bar I was a rebel without a cause. A bunch of us young lawyers banned ourselves together and we made a lot of noise. We were attacking the status quo in the profession and barking about how 'massa' day is not yet done; that the legal profession was still controlled by the sons of 'massa' and that 'massa' was still sucking up our blood like vampires. We pointed out that certain white law firms had a close relationship with the financial institutions in the country and the poor black lawyers could not even get the crumbs from the table.

"But now as I have become of age and I am now a man in the profession I have put aside childish things. No, I am not a rebel. I am a gladiator."

Khan has tried to record some of his experiences and observations of the law and society through his writings. He published the Scales of Justice in 1993 and he said he has two unpublished manuscripts.

"What prompted me to write was the fact that I was once a rookie journalist with a West Indian newspaper based in Toronto. I have this secret ambition to be a writer," he revealed.

Khan openly admits that he does not shun the media or publicity because "an advocate at the Criminal Bar is a public figure and he is often under the scrutiny of the press. You would agree with me that all successful criminal lawyers all over the free world thrive on publicity. And in this little country, this little, humble lawyer is not an exception to that phenomenon."

One of the reasons, many agree, as to why Khan enjoys so much success, is because of his insightful cross-examination and novel defence practices. But, those defences, he said, are not made up by him; they fall within the ambit of the law.

Some of those memorable cases include the case of a man who decapitated his sister, disemboweled her and ate pieces of her liver and spleen. Khan claimed his client was 'demon possessed' and even had the official Catholic Exorcist of the Caribbean, who had just been ordained by the Pope, testify on his client's behalf. When asked by the judge to produce his legal authority for that defence, Khan produced a copy of the Holy Bible. The Appeal Court later agreed the man was insane.

Other memorable defences include one of diminished responsibility - the case where a man ingested cocaine and chopped off his wife's head because he thought she was a 'macajuel snake'; and another of mistake of fact - the client believed he was chopping up a 'lagahoo' when in fact it was a human being.

When asked what he attributed his success to, Khan replied with a laugh, "Sometimes I hear an inner voice prompting me to ask certain questions or advising me to move my cross-examination into a certain area. You know how many times this inner voice has prompted me to ask the most innocuous questions and the answers given by the witness caused my cross-examination to move into a particular direction which resulted in victory of the accused man."

He said a few years ago he went to a psychiatrist and told him about this 'inner voice'. He said the psychiatrist told him it was his sixth sense - 'a combination of my innate intelligence with my years of experience in cross-examining witnesses."

On a different note, Khan, who grew up in Monte Grande, Tunapuna said he is of no particular faith but he reveres and respects "Allah, Bhagwan and Christ". He said his father is Muslim, his mother was Hindu but she converted to the Pentecostal faith while she was pregnant with him. "Thus the name Israel was given to me," he explained.

Away from the courtroom, Khan, the 'proud owner of an estate in the country', raises red tilapia as a hobby, and he plants 'citrus, coconuts and mangoes'.

"So you see, when I retire from the profession, you can check me out at the Tunapuna market, selling my produce," he laughed.

Khan has been a tutor in the Law of Evidence and Criminal Practice and Procedure at the Hugh Wooding Law School for the past 10 years and he also teaches at UWI Extra Mural department.

He is also a member of the Law Reform Commission and was recently appointed by the President on the Central Tenders Board.

And what are his plans for 2000?

"There are too many quacks and invalids in the criminal arena so I have decided to strap on my guns and come out and do battle again," he said.

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