The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1933-03-27

Tee, through It's Attorney Leo
demand for a new trial for Tt
Quentin prison, the victim of ;
The legal victory follows
seventeen years Of ceaseless
activity and mass protest, the
most recent actions being a huge
united front mass conference in this
city as part of the scores of meets
being held throughout the United
States in preparation for the Tom
Mooney CONGRESS, to be held in Chi
caeo April 80.
The San Francisco meeting, held
last Sunday in Civic Auditorium, was
attended by $1,000 workers and had
the support of large number Of A.
F. Of L. local unions, fraternal orga-
nizationS and other workers groups.
The decision to grant the new trial
to Mooney was made by Superior
Judge Louis H Ward, who set the
date for April rs when the famous
labor prisoners will be tried on the
second Of two indictments arising
from the 1916 frame-up. The first
indictment resulted in his conviction
and sentence TO death, later COM
muteo to life Imprisonment as q re-
suit of international workingclass pro-
| test.
viii Expose PeEjusics Again
The defense had demanded trial
on the second untried indictment in
order to provide an opportunity to
expose the perjuries in the original
trial, and at the same time TO pre-
sent a mass Of new evidence which
has torn to shreds the frameup case
| against Mooney and Billings.
While the granting Of the new trial
IS victory and vfndication OF the
mass pressure tactics OF the defense,
acquittal of Mooney at the forthcom-
ing trial will not automatically free
him. Under the California law his
status remains the same even upon
acquittal, and only the widest and
most intensive mass protest will make
it possible to force Governor RoIph
to free him.
Last May Gov. Rolph declared that
"the Mooney case is closed" but the
International Labor Defense and the
Tom Mooney Molders Defense Com
mittee proceeded to intensity its mass
activities, never for one moment
yielding its demand for the complete
and unconditional release OF Mooney
and Billings.
District Attorney Matthew A. Brady
objected violently to the move for a
new trial and after the decision in
favor OF the defense he announced
his withdrawal from the case. Judge
Ward stated that he would ask the
State Attorney Generals Office to
take over the prosecution.
100 Defense Witnesses.
Gallagher, LID. attorney, said that
he is ordering 100 subpoenas for the
defense and challenged the Attorney
General to appoint Matt L. Sullivan,
Charles Fickert and Edwin Cunna as
| prosecutors.
Sullivan, former justice of the
state Supreme Court has been for a
long time an advisor" to Gov. Rolph
and took leading part last year in
preparing the vicious report which
the governor used as a basis" for
refusing the demand for an outright
pardon for Mooney.
Fickert YVES the district attorney in
San Francisco who conducted the
original frame-up against Mooney.
His role in building up the case
against Mooney and Billings as a tool
of the utility interests of California
has been exposed time and again
during the past seventeen years.
Perjurers Have Confessed.
In fighting the move for the new
trial, Brady based himself on the plea
that all of the prosecution witnesses
are either dead or missing, and that
1t would be make believe" trial
Other considerations which undoubt-
edly moved Brady we're, of course, the
fact that practically all of the pro-
cccut'on witnesses have either COM
pletely repudiated their testimcnv or
been completely d'-cr" ditsd, and that
eleven Of the twalye living jurors in
the original trame-up trial have
gone on record as stating that Moo
ney is innocent.
Long hated by the California boS-
ses and particularly the utility inter
ests for his militant activities and
his incorruptibility as fighting trade
unionist, Mooney was framed up and
charged with having set the bomb
which killed 10 people and injured
40, Warren X. Billings arrested at the
same time, was sent to Folsom prison
for life.
He was sentenced to be hanged,