You ought to be out raising hell. This is the fighting age. Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones
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Sunday July 11, 1915
Trinidad, Colorado - Juror in Lawson Trial Alleges Bailiff Intimidated Jury
An affidavit has been filed in Trinidad, Colorado, alleging that John R. Lawson was convicted of first-degree murder as a result of intimidation and jury tampering by the court bailiff in charge of the jury.
From yesterday's Indianapolis Star:
LAWSON VERDICT DUE TO JURY TAMPERING?
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Counsel for Convicted Labor Leader Charges Bailiff
With Intimidation of Panel at
Original Murder Trial.
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John R Lawson with Louie Tikas during the strike.
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TRINIDAD, Col., July 9-Charges that the verdict by which John R. Lawson, international executive board member of the United Mine Workers of America, was convicted of first-degree murder was secured through intimidation and jury tampering by a court bailiff, were aired in the District Court here today in the arguments on Lawson's motion for a new trial.
Lawson was, convicted May 3 of first-degree murder in connection with the killing of John H. Nimmo, a deputy sheriff, in a battle near Ludlow, Col., between deputies and striking coal miners.
The motion for a new trial filed by Lawson's attorney was accompanied by an affidavit signed by Grover Hall, a member of the jury which convicted the labor leader. In it Hall declares he believes Lawson innocent. He swears that during the more than forty hours of jury deliberations he was repeatedly told by Frank Gooden, the bailiff in charge of the jury, that his wife was dangerously ill.
Not Taken to Luncheon.
The affidavit makes the further charge that on May 3 the jury was not taken to luncheon at the usual hour, and that Gooden informed Hall that Judge Hillyer had ordered the jurors to be locked in a room and given no food until they had agreed upon a verdict. Finally Hall declares, he agreed to vote for a verdict which he believed was contrary to the evidence.
An affidavit by Bert Bramlett, who served as bailiff in-the murder trial of Louis Zancanelli, preceding the Lawson trial, stated that Gooden had boasted to him that he had brought pressure to bear upon Grover Hall."
Bertha Hall, wife of Grover Hall, in an affidavit offered when the hearing opened, swore that during the Lawson trial she had a cold. The affidavit charges that on the evening of May 2 "one Zeke Martin was in the house of affiant and insisted that affiant should have a doctor; that Martin finally called a physician who said Mrs. Hall was not seriously ill." Zeke Martin at that time was under-sheriff.
Other affidavits submitted are from men alleged to have participated as mine guards in the battle in which Nimmo was killed and purport to indicate that Nimmo was struck by a bullet fired by one of the guards, not by strikers.
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[Photograph added.]
Mother Jones Speaks at Chicago Protest Meeting.
Mass meetings are being planned around the country to protest the unjust conviction of John R. Lawson. This afternoon in Chicago, Mother Jones and Frank Walsh will speak at a mass meeting at the Garrick Theater.
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SOURCES
The Indianapolis Star
(Indianapolis, Indiana)
-July 10, 1915
http://www.newspapers.com/...
The Day Book
(Chicago, Illinois)
Noon & Last Editions
-July 10, 1915,
(See links above.)
IMAGE
John R Lawson
with Louie Tikas during the strike.
http://ludlowsymposium.wordpress.com/...
Hellraisers Journal is on vacation!
Hellraisers will be on a vacation of sorts until September 1st and will appear in abbreviated form until that date. A complete vacation is not possible since the ruling class never took a vacation from their suppression and oppression of the working class.
There are no limits to which powers of privilege
will not go to keep the workers in slavery.
-Mother Jones
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A Miner's Life- Kilshannig
Soon this trouble will be ended,
Union men will have their rights,
After many years of bondage,
Digging days and digging nights.
Then by honest weight we labor,
Union miners never fail;
Keep your hand upon the dollar
And your eyes upon the scale.
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