Criminal,
Legal Education
Nov. 1, 2023
A 1916 bombing and “America’s Most Famous Prisoner”
In 1932, U.S. President Herbert Hoover established the federal Wickersham Commission to investigate law enforcement in the U.S. The commission decried California’s criminal procedure as “shocking to one’s sense of justice” and separately described the Mooney prosecution as based on deliberately concealed information and on perjured testimony.
John S. Caragozian
Email: caragozian@gmail.com
John is a Los Angeles-based lawyer and sits on the Board of the California Supreme Court Historical Society. He welcomes ideas for future monthly columns on California's legal history at caragozian@gmail.com.
Courts have often protected Californians’ civil rights and liberties in the face of popular opposition. But not always.
The 1916-1917 wrongful murder convictions of labor union activists Tom Mooney and Warren Billings were the subject of multiple state and federal court proceedings, none of which granted relief. Instead, a governor finally freed Mooney and Billings after 22 years of imprisonment.
In the early 19...
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