Judd, for the Defense

Joe Maddox is desperate to find a decent job after being eased out of the editor's position he held for years. But he makes the mistake of confronting the former employer whom he blames for the loss of his job, resulting in the man's death and Maddox being charged with his murder.

In Juvenile Court, without benefit of counsel, 17-year-old Kenny Carter, Jr. is consigned to the county Juvenile Home for three years based on the charge of stealing and wrecking a car, for which he vaguely denies guilt. Judd steps in to uphold Carter's full rights under due process, but Carter is reluctant to cooperate, as he is concealing a terrible secret.

A parolee may be sent back to prison for associating with a rehabilitation center for former convicts, as this violates the terms of his parole. Judd defends him, but he soon has worse problems, as he is charged with killing an old associate during a robbery attempt.

A headstrong, controversial priest answers a desperate call from one of his students, a young woman who has been obviously smitten with him. She tells him she is going to kill herself unless he comes to her apartment. The priest comes, only to find himself in a situation in which the girl's boyfriend is accidentally shot and killed. Judd defends the priest, but the case is complicated by the emotionally unstable girl's refusal to cooperate and tell the truth.

A onetime film star, hoping for a comeback, asks Judd to represent a scriptwriter to help him get out of a restrictive contract with a Hollywood producer. But the contract is more ironclad than was first realized, and soon that becomes a moot point, as the producer is murdered and the writer is charged with the crime.

Judd is called to the home of an assistant to a high-powered millionaire industrialist, where he is shown the body of a man in a boat. He finds that he has a hard time getting to the truth about how the man died, as the industrialist is telling everyone what to say and not say. Eventually the assistant confesses to killing the man, claiming the victim attacked his wife. But Judd feels people are still not telling him the full truth.

Ben defends the son of a grocer who was murdered by the mob. The young man is accused of kidnapping the retired gangster father of the man who is believed to have ordered the killing.

As a member of a national committee of attorneys assigned to civil rights cases, Judd must defend a client he'd prefer not to: a Southern sheriff charged with violating the civil rights of a harassed Northern writer who was found dead shortly after the sheriff was seen taking him away in his car.

After his client Bruzzy Burke is convicted, Judd continues to work to try to appeal the conviction, even though he is fired by Bruzzy's millionaire father. His first step is to discredit the witness whose surprise testimony led to the conviction, and to use new witnesses---but one of them winds up dead.

Judd defends the playboy son of a millionaire hotel owner who has been charged with the murder of the hotel's bookmaker, whom he was in debt to.

Judd defends a woman who admits to killing her invalid husband. She claims she was in fear for her life because of his increasingly violent and erratic behavior, but no one else in her town claims to have seen that side of him.

Judd visits his client, labor leader Gabriel Aguila, in jail for staging an illegal strike. But in a failed escape attempt a police officer is killed and Judd is taken hostage as leverage.

Judd is representing mobster Walter Whittaker, who is targeted by prosecutor Joseph Flexner. A bomb killed Flexner's wife and despite a lack of evidence he indicts Whittaker for the murder. Judd must battle the stacked odds.

Judd and Ben take the case of a deaf-mute couple who want to adopt the foster child they've been taking care of. A complication develops when the child's natural mother shows up and decides to rescind her original decision to give up her baby.

An old classmate of Ben's is accused of the brutal and senseless murder of three young women in a park. Though it is obvious to both Judd and Ben that the man needs psychiatric help, he still insists he is completely innocent of the murders---and so does a psychic friend of his.

An oil company executive is charged with the murder of a man who had been blackmailing him. The defendant says the victim stumbled during a fight and fell off a platform accidentally, but two witnesses insist that he was pushed.

Ben's client is charged with killing the abortionist who illegally operated on his daughter and almost killed her. Judd believes the man has a violent streak. Ben uncovers many dark secrets when the case goes to trial.

An escaped convict confronts Judd in a parking lot and demands that he take his case to prove him innocent of the murder he was convicted of six years earlier. Judd motions for a new trial, on the grounds that the man's previous attorney did not provide an adequate defense.

Judd's client is a young girl who shot her married lover, but claims she mistook him for a burglar. He finds he must defend her "New Morality" life style as well as the murder charge.

The son of an oil tycoon confesses to the murder of a young woman a year and a half earlier. But Judd doesn't believe his confession, and decides to defend him. But why is the young man making the false confession?

Judd represents architect Paul Christopher in his suit against a former police chief turned special investigator, who is ruthlessly harassing Christopher in his attempt to prove him guilty of conspiracy in the assassination of a mayor.

Judd takes the case of a pregnant young woman who was found outside the scene of a burglary and charged with it.

A football player asks Judd to represent him in fighting his late wife's parents for custody of his son. But soon the case takes on a more serious turn, as the grandparents accuse him of killing their daughter.

Judd defends an ex-cop who claims that he was framed for murder after he tried to expose corruption within the department.

Judd defends a skipper (Leslie Nielsen) charged with the murder of four people aboard his boat. The only witness is a little girl who was also wounded during the slaughter.

Judd defends a wild, rebellious young man who is accused of killing two teenage girls although no bodies have been found and they may have run away.

A divorced man, fearful that his ex-wife plans to leave the country with his son, also learns that he has no legal right to stop her according to the divorce agreement. While trying to find them, he gets into an argument with his brother-in-law and accidentally kills him.

A friend of Judd's is shot and killed while with his rebellious daughter and her horse. The girl claims it was an accident, but though he agrees to defend her Judd has trouble believing her version of the event, as does her mother.

Judd defends a college professor who's job is on the line after he invited a black militant lecturer to one of his events.

After a recording of a conversation at one of his sessions is played, the prosecution charges that Barnaby Cutler planned the murder of victim Dan Miles with the help of his lover, Miles' wife.

Dan Miles comes to Reverend Barnaby Cutler's spiritual retreat to take his wife home, but she refuses to go. Soon Miles is found dead, and Cutler is charged with his murder. His claim that he does not even remember the events of the day make it look even worse for him.

A student who has been acting as an undercover agent for the police narcotics squad is accused by several students of raping a girl. Judd defends him but believes more is motivating him than just a desire to keep his fellow students off of drugs.

Crossover with "The Felony Squad".

The kleptomaniac daughter of a wealthy woman is charged with grand theft. She insists she is innocent, but proving it would involve telling a secret which could jeopardize her family situation.

A man finds his job and reputation being destroyed by a minor mistake on a computer card, and in his attempts to do something about it he may be digging himself in even deeper.

Judd assists another attorney in defending a young woman who readily admits to killing the young man she considered her boyfriend, saying that she did it because he told her to.

A young woman whom Judd hasn't seen since she was a child names him as custodian for her baby after she kills her husband and then herself. Judd can't permanently take care of the child, but he finds that no one in the young woman's family is well suited for the baby either, and thus must consider adoption, if the family will agree to it.

A longshoreman dealing with loan sharks who have taken over his union is charged with the murder of the union's steward, who he believed was assisting them in charging him exorbitant interest on a loan.

A man removes his pregnant wife from a group of witches, who have convinced her that they could protect the baby. After she goes back again, he returns and this time accidentally injures the group's high priest, who tried to stop him from taking his wife back. Judd defends the man against a charge of assault, feeling that he genuinely feared for his wife and baby.

Judd defends an alcoholic woman who has been charged with hit-and-run even though she has not had a drink in years. It is soon obvious the evidence against her is flimsy, but the judge in the case denies every motion Judd tries to prove this. Judd soon decides to show that the judge is biased due to his own unsuccessful battle against alcohol.

Ben successfully defends a young man in a paternity suit by bringing out the names of other men who the baby's mother may have been with. But soon afterward he is arrested and charged with bringing the young woman across state lines for immoral purposes.

Judd defends a man who filmed a movie inside a mental institution, a project he began when he was a patient there himself. The institution does not want the film shown to the public, but the filmmaker and his backers---led by his wife and brother-in-law---believe conditions inside such places must be exposed. However, the institution argues that the film violates the privacy of its main subject, who has just been released.

An old friend of Judd objects to his son's friendship with a young man whom he thinks is a homosexual. Later, when the father is shot in an altercation, the son's friend is accused of attempted murder.

A young woman begs Judd to defend her friend, an escapee from a prison farm, who claims he will be killed if he is sent back there. The man claims to have killed a convict/trustee who tried to stop his escape. But when Judd asks about this at the farm, the officials deny the man was ever killed. Soon Judd is determined to close the prison farm---if he can get the escapee to tell where the many murdered prisoners are buried.

Judd defends a rock entrepreneur who is charged with the murder of his wife, who died at a party he was hosting. Though she died of a heart condition, the man is accused of giving her the amphetamines which contributed to her death.

A lady lawyer, accused of intentionally running down a woman in an alley, uses different ways to pressure Judd into taking her apparently shaky case.

Jady Crews is arrested on a minor charge when he tries to stop his black militant son's group from using a gun. Judd easily gets that charge dropped, but the arrest brings to light the fact that Crews escaped from prison years earlier in South Carolina, where he had been convicted of murder after a traffic accident. Though Judd is sure he can get the conviction overturned, Crews' son hopes to use his father's plight to bolster his group's claim that a black man can't receive justice through laws made by whites.

Judd defends a doctor accused of murder after performing a heart transplant. The recipient is a young woman who the doctor has fallen in love with, and another doctor present claims that the donor was still alive when his heart was removed.

Ray Elliott, an attorney who is well known for his advocacy against the draft, is charged with murder after a young man he was counseling immolates himself in public to avoid conscription, and prosecutors contend Elliott encouraged the young man to do it.