To celebrate Jewish news,
Last Of The Breed
Attorney Jack Kraizman defends the despicable, with
pride and a touch of Torah.
ord knows what went
through the minds of the
Michigan Supreme Court
justices as the stubby, be-
spectacled Jewish attorney stood
before them lecturing in Hebrew.
But there stood 85-year-old
Jack Kraizman — one hand
brandishing legal papers, the oth-
er tracing arcane passages from
Deuteronomy. "Ayn adam
maysim hatsmoh rasha," he de-
clared in a sonorous Yiddish ac-
cent, a remnant of his childhood
in Russia.
I
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Now 86, he drives to his down-
town office each day at 8 a.m. and
works on cases until 2. His eye-
sight is so-so, his back aches from
an auto accident, and he some-
times walks with a cane. "But my
mind is sharp, and that's the only
thing that really counts," he notes.
Given his background, it's a
miracle his mind developed at all.
He could not read nor write when
he arrived in America in 1922.
His family soon moved to Ann
Arbor and, at age 12, Jack Kraiz-
man was placed in kindergarten.
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Jack Kraizman: "This case involves the rule of law."
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AD 1 95
The verse, as Mr. Kraizman
explained to the justices last No-
vember, had a special meaning
to his client, James McMahan —
a two-time murderer who was
appealing his conviction in a
third slaying. It meant that his
_conviction should be reversed.
Two weeks ago, Michigan's
highest court agreed and threw
out the murder verdict. Given the
defendant's previous convictions,
it was not exactly a feel-good de-
cision. But it was exactly the kind
of ruling that delights Mr. Kraiz-
man.
"This case does not involve
James McMahan," he said last
week from the Detroit law office
he shares with his son, Sidney.
"This case involves the rule of
law."
A lawyer for more than 60
years, mostly in the bowels of De-
troit's criminal court system,
Jack Kraizman is the last of a
breed. While other lawyers of his
generation — men with names
like Harry and Chicky and Max
and Al — have retired or passed
away, Jack Kraizman has no
such plans.
"I caught on real fast," he said.
Working as a truck driver, he
put himself through the Univer-
sity of Michigan law school. He
soon caught the eye of the may-
or of Saline, who told him the
town could use a "sharp Jew like
you to be the city attorney." He
swallowed hard and took the job.
After World War II, he opened
shop in Detroit and slowly built a
private practice, often represent-
ing blacks and other minorities
whom he came to see as the vic-
tims of police oppression.
He became known among vet-
eran lawyers as something of a
character, but in the best sense of
the word. While other lawyers ar-
gued facts and technicalities, Mr.
Kraizman took a grander view.
"He was always citing the
Magna Carta, and he was famous
for quoting the Bible or anything
else that would help his client,"
said Robert Colombo Sr., a retired
Recorder's Court judge.
At the core of Jack Kraizman's
philosophy are two bedrock be-
liefs: that police officers should
never be trusted to follow the law;
and that the Torah is the source