Word: mooney
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...cannot pretend that I am not shocked at having any person put into a vault for 16 or 17 years. If Mr. Mooney was such a bad man, why didn't you have the courage and the character to shoot...
...bombing San Francisco's 1916 Preparedness Day Parade, in which ten people were killed, Thomas Mooney was indicted on eight murder counts. Six were dropped. On one he was sentenced to death, later having his sentence commuted to life imprisonment. Last week the Mooney Defense Committee asked and was granted a trial on the one untried indictment. District Attorney Matthew Brady withdrew from the case because he said he did not have sufficient evidence to convict, did not believe Mooney guilty. If he wins his trial, Mooney will have basis for a new pardon plea...
Next April Thomas Mooney will be once more on the stand in his own defense to fight the old indictment for the 1916 bombing, now being pressed anew. Mooney, as is well-known, is serving a life-sentence in San Quentin jail after a much-disputed conviction in 1917. The opinion of all but Californians is that the prisoner, if not plainly innocent, is at least the victim of an atrociously unfair trial, in which State's witnesses gave perjured testimony, evidence for the defense was suppressed, and the issued clouded over with hysteria. Now the case is going...
However plain it is to the rest of the world that Mooney was dealt with unjustly, California has not changed her mind. To her Mooney is still a murderer, a labor-agitator, an enemy of American Ideals and Institutions, and a danger to the sanctity of the home. Even if the April trial goes his way, there is no basis for supposing that he will be pardoned by the governor; the same forces that have prevented four other governors from doing this are still in the field; the Public Utilities still cherish a grudge against the man who fought them...
...trial has been hailed by many as a real chance for a future reversal of the decision. But this hope appears ephemeral, for the case has gone beyond the question of justice. It has become the focal point in the radical-conservative struggle. It no longer matters whether Mooney was guilty; the significant fact to both sides is that he is the representative of the labor movement. He has become the symbol of class warfare, and while such, no impartial view of the testimony can be expected...