Unring The Bell - in USA V. Lowis

In USA V. Lowis

The phrase also appears several times in the ruling of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in the case USA v Lowis. Gary Lowis was arrested for possession of amphetamine and marijuana. Between that arrest and the subsequent trial, he was arrested a second time on similar charges. Before trial in United States District Court on the first arrest, the judge granted a defense motion to exclude evidence of the second arrest. However, during testimony a police witness quoted a statement made by Lowis after the second arrest. The judge later instructed the jury to disregard that portion of the evidence.

Lowis appealed his subsequent conviction, arguing, among other things, that the statements were so prejudicial to him that in spite of the judge's best efforts in instructing the jury to disregard that evidence, as a practical matter it was impossible to "unring the bell." Addressing the evidence admitted in error, the appeals court wrote that that evidence was "not a very loud bell" and the judge's instructions to the jury were adequate to "unring" it. Lowis' conviction was upheld.

In its ruling in USA v Lowis, the appeals court provides us some background and mentions a few other phrases (citations removed):

"Unring the bell" is a good analogy which can save a lot of words in making the point. That phrase originated, as far as we can find, in Sandez v. United States, and was elaborated on in Dunn v. United States, which added other pertinent analogies. "After the thrust of the saber it is difficult to forget the wound," was another, and then the most colorful one of all, "If you throw a skunk into the jury box, you can't instruct the jury not to smell it." In the present case there was no skunk thrown in the jury box. As also mentioned in Dunn, "Trials are rarely, if ever, perfect, but gross imperfections should not go unnoticed." We find no gross imperfections which would overpower the district court's instruction to the jury to disregard Lowis' statement.