# Judge Evans — Hand and Ring character guide

> Judge Evans in Hand and Ring by Anna Katharine Green.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** the Judge

**First appearance:** 0029-xxvii-the-great-trial

## Snapshot

A judge of great moral force and unusual sympathy, whose expression on the morning the defense opens tells the courtroom — and the reader — how much the case has shifted.

## Who they are

Judge Evans has worn the ermine for many years and is known for retaining 'the feeling heart' beneath it, so that he often shows more emotion in pronouncing a sentence than the condemned man shows in hearing it. On the momentous morning when Orcutt rises to open the defense, his hopeful, cheerful expression is read by Mr. Byrd as a signal of how deeply the promised testimony has already moved the unprejudiced mind. His presence lends the trial its moral weight, and his face becomes one of the story's most reliable instruments for measuring the truth.

## In the story

### [I: A Startling Coincidence](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/hand_and_ring_se/chapters/i-a-startling-coincidence)

Judge who comments on the stranger's appearance and later solemnly remarks on the hidden truth of the crime.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/hand_and_ring_se/characters/judge_evans
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/hand_and_ring_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/hand_and_ring_se/characters