Conrad Black's lawyers don't want people to hear what they already know

In what we think is a senseless effort, the lawyers of disgraced former newspaper mogul Conrad Black is trying to block prosecutors from showing jurors a tape on which a shareholder calls the then-head of the Hollinger media empire “a thief.” We say senseless because well.... Conrad Black is what he is. That's like someone trying to block a tape of another someone calling President Bush a Dick Head. In a brief, Mr. Black’s lawyers told Judge Amy J. St. Eve of Federal District Court on Wednesday that the remarks by an irate shareholder, Edward Shuffro, at the May 23, 2002, Hollinger International shareholders meeting were hearsay. “Because Mr. Shuffro is not a witness, admission of his out-of-court statements would deny Mr. Black the right of cross-examination under the Sixth Amendment,” said the three-page brief signed by Marc W. Martin, one of Mr. Black’s lawyers. Conrad Black’s Lawyers Seek to Stifle Tape [NYT]