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Show statute gave to the trial court the right to exonerate a convicted man, despite the affirmation of that conviction by a higher court, in the event that official fraud had been proven. The fact that the writ I was rarely Invoked took nothing from its j legal strength, he contended. Before McNutt began his argument. Judge Griffin said that he doubted the Jurisdiction of the court to entertain such a motion, but was willing to listen to arguments. Aylett Cotton, assistant district dis-trict attorney, argued that the court was without jurisdiction to hear an argument of any sort on the points involved, but ' Judge Griffin directed McNutt to proceed. WSCOiSEL ASKS FORNEW TRIAL Fraud, Malfeasance and Nonfeasance Is Basis of Argument in Court. SAN FRANCISCO. May 2. A motion asking that Thomas J. Mooney be granted grant-ed a new trial and that the previous j trial, which resulted in a death sentence for murder, be set aside on the grounds of willful fraud, malfeasance and nonfeasance non-feasance In the -office of District Attorney Attor-ney Charles M. Flckert, was made in court here today by Maxwell McNutt, chief of Mooney's counsel. The motion was followed by arguments on the jurisdiction of Judge Franklin A. Griffin in the case, which already has gone to the state supreme court, where a new trial was denied. Attorney McNutt Mc-Nutt presented arguments and briefs to support his contention that Judge Griffin had jurisdiction. These were presented over tho objection of the prosecution, which moved that the motion be denied immediately on the ground that it was irregular. McNutt argued that the court had the inherent power to set aside a Judgment Which had been procured before It through fraud, and contended that he could prove fraud In the office of the district attorney attor-ney In connection with the trial. His argument was based on the old English common law, which, he said, was carried through the California code with some slight changes in procedure. Mooney was convicted on a charge of first-degree murder growing out of the preparedness parade bomb explosion here in 11)16, in which ten persons lost their lives and forty others were Injured. His case has attracted wide attention, and President Wilson has recommended that a new trial be given htm on account of alleged Irregularities in his first trial. Tho ancient writ of "coram nobis" (before us the king), whereby convicted persons could appeal to their sovereign under the old English law, and protest any official fraud that might have precipitated pre-cipitated their plight, was invoked by Attorney McNutt. during his argument to wipe out all legal proceedings against Mooney. The argument will be completed com-pleted tomorrow afternoon. McNutt pleaded that the motion to exonerate Mooney, based on- the writ, was a procedural invocation," based on the common law fundament that "there is no wrong without remedy." He argued that this basic principle of the common law was woven into American Ameri-can jurisprudence through the fact that this country has accented the common law as the foundation for all of its statutes. stat-utes. He presented many authorities of English and American law tending to dovetail with the principle of "coram nobis." and contended that this ancient |