Evening star., 1944-10-22
AppeaIsCourt
Rejects Pleas in
Sedition Case
Sanctuary Denied
Reconsideration of
Severance Petition
BY CARTER BROOKE JONES.

SSVSs SshSS SNbAt~sb
BY CARTER BROOKE JONES.
The Court of Appeals rejected yes
terday a group of petitions asking
it to intervene in the sedition case.
At almost the same moment, an
other appeal from ruling of Chief
Justice Edward C. Eicher in the
District Court trial was filed in the
higher court.
The Court of Appeals allowed
eight defense attorneys in the Sc
dition case to appear as friends
Of the court" in a petition by Col
E. N. Sanctuary, a defendant, for
severance of his case. The appel
late bench then refused what they
Observation-Disclosures of a pre-
vious ruling denying the Sanctuary
petition.
The court took similar action in
the case of another defendant,
Ernest F. Elmhurst, and a former
defendant, Robert Noble, declining
to reconsider a decision denying
them writs prohibiting Justice
Eicher from receiving further evi-
dence against them.
All these cases grew out of the
custer of James j. Laughlin as a
defense attorney in the case. He
was dismissed from the trial by
Justice Eicher after asking the
House to impeach the jurist.
Dilling Asks Mandamus.
The new appeal was taken by
Albert w. Dilling, counsel for his
former wife, Elizabeth Dilling. Mr..
Dilling asked a mandamus directing
Justice Eicher to receive in the
sedition trial record and rule on a
motion asking him to assign a
series of mistrial motions to another
judge or three judges. Justice Eicher
struck the motion from the record
last week on the ground that it was
"scurrilous and contemptuous," and
announced that at the close of the
trial Mr.. Dilling would be required
to answer a contempt citation before
another judge.
The mistrial motions which were
the occasion of Mr.. billings ex-
plunged petition were denied by JUS
tice Eicher. In asking that the mo-
tions be heard in another court,
Mr.. Dilling charged Justice Eicher
was prejudiced in favor of Presi-
dent Roosevelt and allegedly was
promised judicial promotion if the
sedition defendants were convict
ed. The mistrial was asked because
the President referred in a speech
to the Silver Shirts, an organiza-
ton which figures in the alleged
conspiracy charged to the 26 de-
PENDANTS.
Filed by Laughlin.
Mr.. billings appeal was filed by
MI. Laughlin. 1t repeated the
charges against Justice Eicher,
which included the assertion, aired
by Mr.. Laughlin early in the trial,
that Justice Eicher was placed on
the bench by the President espe-
cially to preside at the mass trial.
The eight attorneys whose petit
ton the Court of Appeals denied
were not connected with the defense
of Col. Sanctuary, but asked an op-
portunity to present additional ar
guments and legal citations in sup
port of his contention that he had
been kept on trial Illegally for some
time because he was without ade-
quate defense.
When Col. Sanctuary's attorney,
Henry H. Klein, withdrew from the
case, the defendant asked permis-
sion to retain Mr.. Laughlin. But
Mr.. Laughlin had been ousted, and
the court required the defendant to
engage another lawyer or have one
appointed. With the defendant in
sisting on Mr.. Laughlin, Justice
Eicher named other counsel, whom
the defendant has refused to recog-
niZe.
There was similar question in
the case of Elmhurst, who, after he
broke with his attorney, also de-
manded Mr.. Laughlin and was re-
quired, on his refusal to engage
anyone else, to accept court
appointed counsel over his protest.
Robert Noble appealed on virtu-
ally the same ground, but in his
case the question was held to have
become moot when, on motion of the
Government. a severance was
granted and he was dropped from
the present trial.
Dispositions Are Demanded.
Another demand for leave to take
within a week the dispositions of
Maj. Gen. Walter C. Short and
Rear Admiral Husband E. Kimmel,
commanders in Hawaii at the time
of the japanese attack, was made in
District Court yesterday by Ellis
o. Jones, defendant in the sedition
case. Similar motions were made
early in the trial.
Jones contended in the motion
that he and the other defendants
were being prosecuted because they
opposed the Administrations foreign
policy, and the two dispositions
would disclose "the true story of
Pearl Harbor" and would justify
public statements he made at the
time charging President Roosevelt
and high officials with concealing
the facts and contriving to lay the
blame on the Army and Navy COM
manders.
The trial will be resumed at pm.
tomorrow.