National Affairs: California's Case

Petitions for pardon of Warren K. Billings and Thomas J. Mooney have bothered governors of California since 1916, when the two were jailed for a Preparedness Day bombing which they have continued to insist they did not commit. Last July several States' witnesses renounced the testimony which had convicted Mooney & Billings, reopening the case (TIME, July 14 et seq.). The State Supreme Court, which has sole jurisdiction over Billings because he is a second-offender, sat not as a court but as an advisory pardon board. They heard the entire bombing rehashed. The...

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