The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1930-08-11
JURY SYSTEM
IS BLAMED IN
MOONEY CASE
Conditions in 1916 Pointed
to in Explanation of
Two Convictions.
PANELS WERE FIXTURES
Public Fury, Regulations OF
Pair, Reward Greed
Held Responsible.
BY MAX STERN
lines stan Correspondent

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 11.-HoV
did It happen? This question is
echoing all over America as evil
dence of lying witnesses, fantastic
prosecution theories and other ir-
regularities are unfolded before the
seven judges, sitting in the 'retrial'
Of Warren Billings and Tom Mooney
here.
No one can understand how two
California juries were willing to
hang Mooney and send Billings to
prison for life on The word of such
witnesses as Oman, Macdonald,
Estelle Smith, the Edeaus and the
rest unless he knows the conditions
in San Francisco in 1916. In defense
of this city's courts of law here are
listed some of the conditions that
made the convictions possible:
The professional jury system
then in vogue was one Of the prin-
cipal reasons. For years California
counties had operated under a jury
system susceptible of abuse and cor
ruption. In larger counties like San
Francisco the panels we're selected
from various sources by the judges.
The panels lasted three months. and
there was no provision in law to
prevent the same men from serving
year after year.
Public Mind Infiamed
Court habitues eager to earn the
81 a day came to fill the panels
Known to both district attorney and
defense lawyers either as "acquit-
ters" or "convicters." these profess
Sional jurymen became fixtures. To
stand in with the prosecutors the
majority became ''crnvicters.
It was only in the 1929 legisla-
ture that, in response to a campaign
Jed by the Commonwealth Club, this
system was outlawed, and the Law
amended forbidding any juryman to
serve more than twenty days in any
two years. Under the new system
It is claimed that no jury would
convict Mooney or Billings on the
type Of evidence offered by the
Fickert- Cunha- Brennan prosecution
The infaIned condition Of the
public mind created by the atrocious
nature of the crime helped. The
wanton killing of ten innocent by
ISLANDERS and the injuring of forty
led the newspapers to conduct a
man-hunt of unparalleled ferocity
10 demand immediate apprehension
Of the criminals, to whip the peo-
pie to a fury of revenge.
Billings Had Record
The combination of the far flung
qualification of a reward Of Sl7,50C
and the appearance of a set OF
eager venal witnesses" inspired by
greed for the reward money or de-
sire for notoriety and offering tc
prove anything, was third factor
The vulnerability of the reputa-
lions of Mocccy and Billings. The
former, while freed by two juries Of
dynamiting charges. had a RECORD
for violent strike agitation and mill
tant propaganda strengthened the
case. Billings had a prison record
for carrying dynamite in a strike
against the gas company.
On Tuesday when the hearings are
resumed. the seven judges may de-
eide to keep the Billings trial II
the old legal channels confined by
the facts of Billings direct guilt, his
presence at the scene Of the crime
his possession of suitcase and othel
matters circumstantial to the actu-
Al planting of the bomb, or they
may do as the 1916 prosecution nov
demands. and throw open the hear
ing to seek to establish conspiracy
n they choose the latter course 9
mass of alleged new evidence" vii
be thrown into the case.