The Case of The Incorrect Trivia

Just about every TV and radio report on yesterday's nomination hearing for Sonia Sotomayor included the references to "Perry Mason" and the "only case he ever lost". That included this morning's NPR report. There had been some brief lighthearted testimony about the Judge's childhood in which she talked about watching the program, but couldn't remember the name of the case he lost. I watched Perry Mason as a kid, but was never so much a fan as to remember it at that level of detail. So I looked up the case Judge Sotomayor cited..."The Case of The Deadly Verdict", and according to the Internet Movie Data Base, the nominee (and a lot of other folks) was wrong. It was NOT the only case the lawyer lost:

Although it's popularly believed this episode represents the only time Perry Mason loses a case, in the first-season episode "The Case of the Terrified Typist", not only is Mason's client convicted of murder - he turns out to be really guilty! (However, Mason figures out that the murderer was impersonating someone else, and since some of the prosecution's evidence was related to the actual person whose identity had been stolen, a mistrial is declared, meaning a second trial for the defendant, presumably without Mason's services.) In the sixth-season closer, "The Case of the Witless Witness", a respected judge rules against Mason in some civil matter; when the judge ends up falsely accused of corruption, then murder, Mason doesn't hesitate to defend him. [IMDB.COM] Just to set the record straight, Your Honor.

[NOTE: Judge Sotomayor and I spent our earliest childhood years about a mile...and four years...apart, in the Bronx.]