Abstract

Covering Washington

Once more justice has struggled with the jury system, and lost. Harry F. Sinclair was acquitted by twelve be-nighted men who did not know that bribery could be proved by circumstantial evidence. They accepted a cock-and-bull story, concocted in desperation, because there was no witness who could take the stand, under American rules of evidence, and call the story by its right name. Consequently, the author of the most colossal and brazen fraud which had been attempted against the government in modem times will not be punished for his main offense. He will be punished, if at all, merely for his lawless and desperate efforts to escape. It is true that the U.S. Supreme Court had branded him as a conspirator and had pronounced Albert B. Fall "a faithless public officer."