Ruby Bates was apparently too sick to travel. She had had surgery in New York, and at one point Leibowitz requested that her deposition be taken as a dying declaration. While she was not dying, committed to his three-day time limit for the trial, Judge Callahan denied the request to arrange to take her deposition. Although the defense needed her testimony, by the time a deposition arrived, the case had gone to the jury and they did not hear it at all.