Evening star., 1944-05-19
Eieher May Decide
Monday on Motions
For Sedition MistriaI
By CARTER BROOKE JONES.

With the sedition trial ir
weekend recess, Presiding JUS
tice Edward c. Eicher today
studied legal precedents bearing
on defense demands for a mis-
trial, among these citations the
Supreme Courts decision reverS-
ing a previous conviction OF
George Sylvester viereck, who is
one of the 20 defendants In the
present case.
Justice Eicher, who held the mo-
tions under advisement nearly all
day yesterday, while allowing the
trial to go on, did not announce
when he would rule, but he may an
nounce his decision when the case
is resumed in District Court at 10
am. Monday.
Meanwhile, the defense had start
ed opening statements to the jury
with a defendant, Lawrence Dennis
acting as his own attorney, deliver
ing part of the first address late yes
terday. Dennis declared freedom OF
speech was the sole issue in the case
The trial adjourned In another flare
up of personalities and a burst OF
applause from the defense side for
Mr.. Dennis speech.
Ennis Cites Viereck Decision.
The Viereck decision was cited by
P. Bateman Ennis, counsel for the
former German-American Bund
leader, Gerhard Wilhelm Kunze
Mr. Ennis, assailing the opening
statement of Chief Prosecutor O.
John Rogge as inflammatory and
prejudicial, did not mention Vie
reck's name in citing the case, out
of difference to the fact that Vie
reck Is in the present case, but read
excerpts from the ruling and iden-
titled the case by number in Federal
Reports.
The Supreme Court, in a 5-to-2
decision, reversed the trial court in
finding the defendant guilty of vio-
lating the act requiring agents for
foreign governments to register with
the State Department. The Govern
ment had charged Viereck with not
complying entirely with the law, and
the Supreme Court, holding that the
alleged offense was not covered in
the statutes, added:
"As the case must be remanded
to the District Court for further
proceedings, we direct attention to
the conduct of the prosecuting at
torney which we think prejudiced
petitioners right to a fair trial and
which, independently of the error
for which we reverse, might well
have placed the Judgment of the
conviction in jeopardy. In his clos
ing remarks to the jury he in
dulged in an appeal wholly irrele-
want to any facts or issues in the
case, the purpose and effect of which
could only have been to arouse pas
sion and prejudice"
Object to Statement.
Mr.. Ennis and other defense coun-
sci contended that MIR. Rogge's OPEN
ing statement went beyond the
scope of the indictment or any pos
sible evidence in the case. This the
Government was prepared to deny
If the court sought it's opinion.
Viereck was convicted at second
trial and Is serving a sentence in
the alien registration case.
The first VierecK case was prose-
cuted by William Power Maloney,
special assistant to the Attorney
General. He took the sedition evi-
dence before special grand jury
but later was promoted to a new post
and supplanted in its prosecution
by Mr.. Rogge.
Dennis, a polished speaker, who
had been described by Mr.. Rogge to
the jury as the mentor and adviser
of the Nazi movement in America
and as this country's No. l Fascist,
asked why, If the defendants were
guilty of melting mutiny in the
armed forces, the prosecutor had not
stuck to this charge, the sole accusa-
tion in the indictment, when he out
lined the case.
THE answer is the Government
has no such evidence" said Dennis.
DepiOrcS D1S0rQef.
Dennis deplored the "disorderly
conduct" in the courtroom the pre-
vious day, but said when the Gov
ernment brought out ridiculous
charges you could expect a reaction
OF amusement among the less re-
strained defendants and their par
tisans.
This is a political trial. It is not
different from the Dreyfuss case.
And in political trial, the Govern
ment always tries to mobilize pas
sion and hatred"
The sole issue, he insisted, was
freedom of speech. The defendants,
he pointed out, were charged with
sowing disunity as the first steps in
their alleged conspiracy to over
throw the Government.
Cites Nazi Methods.
You'll always have disunity," he
added, where you have freedom of
speech. You can't have one without
the other"
He promised to show that the
whole theory of the prosecution was
wrong. 1t was not the policy of
the Nazis, he said, to incite troops
OF occupied countries to mutiny, but
to try to win them over, as was
done in Romania and elsewhere.
And the Nazis often, as in the case
of Petain in France, placed in power
as subterfuge persons not con-
nected with the Nazi movement, he
said.
When Dennis, replying to Mr..
Rogge's charge that the defendant
was the Alfred Rosenberg" of the
Nazi movement in America, called
the prosecutor the "Vishinsky of
this trial" Mr.. Rogge objected, and