The Justice Case was tried at the Palace of Justice in Nuernberg before Military Tribunal III. Early in June 1947, the presiding judge became ill, and for this reason the sessions of the Tribunal had to be temporarily suspended. Thereupon the Tribunal designated the other two members and the alternate member as commissioners of the Tribunal to hear the testimony of a number of available witnesses whose affidavits had been introduced in evidence by the prosecution and who had been requested for cross-examination by the defense. Accordingly, the commissioners held hearings to take the further testimony of 13 prosecution affiants on 3, 4, and 5 June 1947. The presiding judge still remained incapacitated due to severe illness. Consequently, on 19 June 1947, shortly before the beginning of the defense case, the Tribunal was reconstituted pursuant to Article II of Military Government Ordinance No. 7, and the alternate judge, who had been present throughout the sessions of the trial, replaced the incapacitated member. Hearings before the Tribunal or the commissioners of the Tribunal were held on 129 separate days. The trial, from indictment to judgment, lasted 11 months. The course of the trial and subsequent related proceedings is shown in the following table:
| Indictment filed | 4 January 1947 |
| Arraignment | 17 February 1947 |
| Prosecution opening statement | 5 March 1947 |
| Defense opening statements | 23 June 1947 |
| Prosecution closing statement | 13–14 October 1947 |
| Defense closing statements | 14–18 October 1947 |
| Prosecution rebuttal closing | 18 October 1947 |
| Final statements of defendants | 18 October 1947 |
| Judgment | 3–4 December 1947 |
| Sentences | 4 December 1947 |
| Affirmation of sentences by the Military Governor of the United States Zone of Occupation | 18 January 1949 |
| Order of the Supreme Court of the United States denying Writs of Habeas Corpus. | 2 May 1949 |
The English transcript of the Court proceedings, including the judgment, the separate opinion of Judge Blair, and the sentences, runs to 10,964 mimeographed pages. The prosecution introduced into evidence 641 written exhibits (some of which contained several documents), and the defense 1,452 written exhibits. The exhibits offered by the prosecution and the defense contained documents, photographs, affidavits, interrogatories, letters, charts, and other written evidence. Approximately 600 of these written exhibits were affidavits, more than 500 of which were introduced by the defense. The Tribunal and the members thereof sitting as commissioners heard the testimony of approximately 140 witnesses, including that of twelve of the defendants who elected to testify. Each of the defendants who testified was subject to examination on behalf of the other defendants. Many of the witnesses heard by the Tribunal itself, and all of the witnesses whose testimony was taken in the commission, were prosecution affiants who were called for cross-examination by the defense.
The case-in-chief of the prosecution began on 5 March 1947 and ended on 5 June 1947, subject to the understanding that several prosecution affiants requested for cross-examination by the defense and not immediately available for cross-examination, could be cross-examined by the defense during the defense case. The Tribunal was in recess between 28 May 1947 and 23 June 1947, during which period the commissioners of the Tribunals held hearings on three successive days. The defense case began on 23 June 1947 and ended on 26 September 1947. The Tribunal was in recess between 26 September 1947 and 13 October 1947, to give both the prosecution and the defense additional time to prepare the closing statements.
The members of the Tribunal and prosecution and defense counsel are listed on the ensuing pages. Prosecution counsel were assisted in preparing the case by Walter Rapp (Chief of the Evidence Division), Fred Niebergall (Chief of the Document Branch), Peter Beauvais, interrogator, and Arnold Buchtal and Henry Einstein, research and documentary analysts.
Selection and arrangement of the Justice Case material published herein was accomplished principally by Robert D. King, working under the general supervision of Drexel A. Sprecher, Deputy Chief Counsel and Director of Publications, Office U.S. Chief of Counsel for War Crimes. Arnold Buchtal, Paul H. Gantt, Gertrude Ferencz, Wolfgang Hildesheimer, Julia Kerr, and Walter Schonfeld assisted in selecting, compiling, editing, and indexing the numerous papers.
John H. E. Fried, Special Legal Consultant to the Tribunals, reviewed and approved the selection and arrangement of the material as the designated representative of the Nuernberg Tribunals.
Final compilation and editing of the manuscript for printing was administered by the War Crimes Division, Office of the Judge Advocate General, under the supervision of Richard A. Olbeter, Chief, Special Projects Branch, with Evelyn A. Goldblatt and Robert F. Phelps as editors and Harry Jacobs and John W. Mosenthal as research analysts.