EVIDENCE UNCERTAIN

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 129, 22 August 1927, Page 1

EVIDENCE UNCERTAIN

EXPERT JOURNAL’S VIEW Other reports or the case say that strenuous legal efforts on behalf of the condemned men continued to-day. Petitions were presented to the Federal Court of Appeals and Mr. Jus- ( tlce Holmes, of the United States Supreme Court, asking them to grant a further reprieve to permit appeals to be made for a writ of certiorari before the Supreme Court. Both declined to grant the petitions. Mr. Justice Holmes said he had no power to do so, but would be very glad if counsel for the condemned men w;uld make a similar application to another Supreme Court Justice. Counsel then appealed to the Governor for a further reprieve, and visited the United States Attorney-General, Mr. Sargent. He asked the latter to open the records of the Department of Justice, where he claimed data bearing on Sacco’s and Vanzetti’s Radical activities would throw new light on the case. Mr. Sargeant declined, and an appeal was then made to the President, Mr. Coolidge, to instruct the AttorneyGeneral to grant the reauest. Intimations from Washington show that strong pressure is being brought to bear to induce the Federal Government to intervene in the case. Efforts are also being made to see Chief Justice Taft, of the United States Supreme Court. —A. and N.Z. Reed. 11.5 a.m. LONDON, Sunday. The “Law Journal,” commenting on the Sacco-Vanzetti case, says: “When all allowance is made for Governor Fuller’s and his committees’ attempts to reach a just decision, the impression remains that there was not enough certainty in the evidence to justify the capital sentence. Apart from this, the State cannot shift the responsibility for the six years delay. It will shock the world if this prolonged legal contest closes -with the infliction of the last penalty.”