Los Angeles herald., 1907-07-07
WANT TERM TO
LAST MANY YEARS
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penitentiary, which is the extreme
limit and If after serving one month
of that sentence he should be tried and
convicted on another charge of extor-
ton and should be sentenced to five
years hereunder the total length Of
| time that he could be imprisoned under
both sentences would be five years and
one month"; upon the process being re-
peated, five years and two months,
and so forth. If, on the other hand,
sentence upon the present conviction
be withheld until other convictions
have been had each of the sentences
will under the law run cumulatively;
or, in other words, each sentence sub
sequent to the first will have it's COM
mencement at the termination Of the
preceding term of imprisonment.
Bribery More Important
AS matter of fact the prosecution
does not particularly desire to press the
other four charges of extortion against
Schmitz, for they feel that they have
more important work before them in
| the prosecution Of the mayor upon any
of the twenty bribery indict-
ments by the grand jury returned.
! But the only apparent way of delaying
present sentence uULll OIneT COuNlC-
! tions have been secured is to press the
untried extortion counts on which the
defense has Joined issue.
Various motions preliminary to trial
; of the bribery charges have been inter-
posed by the defense, and until they
are disposed of these trials cannot be
begun. While it is discretionary with
tence and so incidentally prevent the
mayor from appealing to a higher
court from his conviction, an abuse of
| that discretion would constitute the
| best possible grounds on which to base
mandamus proceedings to compel
Judge Dunno to pronounce sentence
Immediately upon the score that
Schmitz is being wrongly deprived of
| his right to appeal. The prosecution
could best obviate mandamus and re-
sultant los of power to have future
sentences become cumulative by an
nouncing it's readiness to proceed at
| once with the trial of the other ex-
tortion charges. This would give
Judge Dunno, according to the view
point of the district attorneys office,
the available right to withhold present
| sentence, for the defense then could
| not claim as a basis for mandamus
proceedings that the court was abus-
! ing it's discretion and acting in di-
latory and prejudicial manner toward
the mayor.
May Mean Many Years
In other words the Sour untried ex-
tortion cases can be used by the prose-
cution to bridge over the time until the
| first of the bribery cases can be placed
on actual TRIAL, and carrying out this
| system of procedure, long aggregate
| term of imprisonments-ass fur
| ther convictions-instead of short
aggregate of concurrent terms, can be
| secured.
For instance: II the prosecution
| proceeds at once to try the second
| case of extortion and during that trial
| it becomes possible to begin the trial
! Of a bribery charge, the lesser action
can be summarilys dismissed and the
| greater be taken up in its stead. Then,
| sentence on the first eXtortion convic-
ton having been withheld, if the may
or is found guilty of the bribery charge
| he can be sentenced to five years for
extortion and fourteen years for
bribery, and the total term of his inn
prisonment under those two convic-
tions would be nineteen years.
But If sentence for extortion is pro-
nounced now and sentence upon con-
viction of bribery is pronounced later
| the five years and the fourteen years
would run together and the total term
of Imprisonment under both convic-
tions would be only fourteen years plus
| the month OF TWO previously SS4NSO
under the extortion sentence.
Five Counts
Mayor Schmitz is indicted on five
counts of bribery and two counts
of attempted bribery. Should he be
| convicted on each of these counts
and given the extreme penalty on
each, the aggregate term of all the
sentences he would have to serve would
be 431 years, if all sentences were
withheld until all convictions had been
secured. But if he is sentenced next
Monday to five years for extortion, no
subsequent aggregate sentences could
run against him more than fourteen
wears plus the few months OF impris-
onment intervening subsequent to his
delivery to the penitentiary upon the
first sentence pronounced. This IN q
word is why the prosecution Is 80
anxious to have the present sentence
| deferred for while there is OF course
no such absurd intention on their part
as to secure the sentencing OF the
mayor for a period Of hundreds of
| years, they do intend to have him con
fined in the penitentiary for consid-
| erable more than fourteen years II
| convictions warrant
The mayor already has announced
| that IL the sentence is not forthcom-
| ing next Monday he will institute
mandamus proceedings against Judge
Dunno on the ground that the discre-
| tion of the court Is being abused TO
] bar him from his constitutional right
OF appeal.