Spirit of Jefferson. [volume] (Charles Town, Va. [W. Va.]) 1844-1948, 1922-09-19
ALLEN FOUND GUILTY.

treason aglnSI the State OF W est
Virginia by jury In the Circuit
Court here AGO o'clock Saturday
afternoon.
The verdict follows his trial for
alleged participatl0ns in the armed
march of union miners on Logan
county last summer. The jury liked
lne penalty at 10 years in the penn
Ientiary.
The close of the trial was as fat
and lacking in dramatic flavor as the
whole progress OF it has been. There
were not two score persons in the
courtroom. The jury filed in after
being out 45 minutes and George
W. Rouss, foreman, announced SIM
ply:
I'VE, the jury, find the defendant
guilty as charged in the indictment. "
There was no demonstration.
There was not even buzz of COM
ment, this being forestalled by a
wrangling between attorneys which
started immediately the verdict was
announced over the bond to be fixed
pending a motion for new trial.
Ihis was finally fixed at $4,000.
BY the peculiar stipulation in the
law of treason-the West Virginia
constitution following word for
word that of the United States
which requires two witnesses to the
same overt act, the jury had to
answer two heterogeneous in turn
ing in its verdict of guilty. The
first was the specific overt act on
which the defendant was found
guilty; the second, the witnesses
whose testimony it had accepted in
arriving at verdict of guilty.
In answering the first interroga-
tory the jury said that Aliens pres
ence in Logan county with the armed
forces was the overt act. Answering
who had testified to his being there.
The defendant himself, for that mat
ter, testified that he was there for
four days.
The evidence against Allen, in
brief was this: That he had collect
ed money from various locals of the
United Mine Workers to be used on
the march that he had been at Mar
met several times while the miners
were assembling; that he had been
with them at Racine, jeffrey, Shar-
pless and Blair, various points where
lighting had taken place; that he
had carried gun and that he had
distributed ammunition. There was
only one witness to his carrying a
gun; only one witness to his distrib-
uting ammunition. This left the
State, then virtually with only one
overt act in Logan county upon
which it could rely for conviction
Aliens presence in Logan with the
armed forces. The Court had previ.
ously ruled that although testimony
as to the alleged conspiracy in
Kanawha county was admissible fol-
the purpose of establishing the levy
ing of war, ETC., the overt act must
be proven in Logan county, where
the indictment was found.
The court held, in effect, that the
armed assemblage described in the
voluminous evidence introduced was
in fact, a reasonable assemblage
that its object was to levy war upor
the State. The court, in defining
treason, held that treason, according
to the authorities, consisted in ar
effort to overthrow the Government
aitogether-to subvert it. etc
override it, probably, would be what
that would mean," the court added.
Pursuing this subject further, the
court drew an analogy from the
crime of assault upon an individual
The crime of treason, it held, con-
sisted of an assault upon the State
itself.
The verdict, which came with un-
expected swiftness, followed upon a
day and nigh of oratory on the part
of attorneys for both sides. The
only dramatic incident in connection
with all this eloquence was the as
sertion of Thomas c. Townsend
chief counsel for the defense, that
Allen had instructed him to tell the
jury that he either wanted to be &C.
quilted or be hanged for his alleged
crime. The jury disregarded this
request. The statutory provisions
that man must forfeit all his prop
erty if penitentiary sentence be
given was overruled by Judge Woods
who held that this was unconstitu-
tional.
The next trial in the series aris-
president OF District IL, United Mine
ing from the march of armed min
ers will be that of C. Frank Keeney,
Workers, who will go to trial on
October % on charge of being an
accessory before the fact to the
murder of Deputy John c. Gore and
two associates August 81, 1921. The
date was set by Judge Woods after
both the court and the counsel for
both sides had indicated a desire to
have some time in which to attend
to their personal and business mat
tiers in their homes. Judge Woods
explained that he desired render
decision in some cases in Berkeley
county which had been in his hands
for some time.