Guide to the Trial Notebooks from the Nuremberg Justice Case, Tarlton Law Library

Collection Creator

A 1912 graduate of The University of Texas School of Law, Judge Mallory B. Blair practiced in Belton, TX for a brief period before being elected county judge in 1916, and then judge of the 27th Judicial District Court of Texas in 1921. In 1923, Judge Blair was elected to the 3rd Court of Appeals of Texas, along with two other new justices, Judge James W. McClendon and Judge James Harvey Baugh. The three justices served together on the Court for twenty-three consecutive years, a near record in Texas history, and are frequently referred to as "The Great Triumvirate". Judge Blair was defeated for reelection in 1947. In mid-1947, President Truman appointed Blair to serve on a 3-judge panel that would preside over Case No. 3: U.S. v. Joseph Alstötter et al., at the Nuremberg War Crime Trials.

Historical Background

Better known as "The Justice Case", Case No. 3: U.S. v. Joseph Alstötter et al. was a separate trial for members of the German judicial system. The defendants included nine officials in the Reich Ministry of Justice and several prosecutors of the People's Court and the Special Courts. As representatives of a Nazi judicial system that persecuted Poles, Jews, and others in occupied territories, they were accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Of the fifteen defendants, Franz Schlegelberger was the highest-ranking official, having served as Acting Reich Minister of Justice between 1941-1942. One of the defendants, Karl Westphal, died before the beginning of the trial.

Case no. 3 was heard by the United States Nuremberg Military Tribunal (NMT) III, and was part of a second set of twelve trials that focused on the mechanisms of Nazi aggression. The tribunal consisted of three presiding judges and one alternate judge. Serving on the panel with Judge Blair were Presiding Judge Carrington T. Marshall, a former Chief Justice of the Ohio Supreme Court, and Judge Justin W. Harding, a former Assistant Attorney General of Ohio and District Judge of the First Division of Alaska. Early in the trial, Judge Marshall became ill and was replaced by Judge James T. Brand, another former justice of the Ohio Supreme Court.

The prosecution counsel, composed entirely of Americans, included Chief of Counsel Brigadier General Telford Taylor, Deputy Chief Counsel Charles M. LaFollette, Associate Counsels Robert D. King and Alfred M. Wolleyhan, and Assistant Counsel Sadie B. Arbuthnot. The defendants were represented individually by German lawyers.

The panel issued a final judgement of over two hundred pages. Judge Blair wrote a separate, concurring opinion that further discussed the issue of conspiracy. Of the sixteen defendants, four were given a life sentence. Four of the defendants were acquitted, and the rest received prison sentences of five or six years.

Contents of the Collection

The collection consists of typewritten materials (some carbon copy) from a set of loose-leaf binders used by Judge Blair during this important trial. The bulk of the contents consists of summaries of the evidence submitted by the prosecution and defense. Also present are multiple drafts of the final judgement and of Judge Blair's separate, concurring opinion. Administrative materials such as rules of procedure, laws and ordinances, seating charts, diagrams, and memoranda are present in smaller quantities. The defendant files in volumes 8-12 contain evidence descriptions and extensive biographical data for each named defendant. As a unit, the materials represent the data available at the fingertips of Judge Blair during the course of this important trial. Of special interest are the extensive handwritten notes, which demonstrate that Judge Blair made active use of the notebooks during the trial.

Related Material

Administrative Information

Cite As

Trial Notebooks from the Nuremberg "Justice Case". Rare Books & Special Collections, Tarlton Law Library, The University of Texas at Austin.

Detailed Description of the Collection