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Show EVIDENCE ON TRIAL, ITSELF, AT CLEVELAND ! Strange Case of Chief Justice, Charged With Murder, to Be Taken Up CONFLICT OF TESTIMONY IS STRIKING FEATURE Who Is Third Man: Why Was Woman Trailing McGannon? McGan-non? Questions iX. E. A. Staff Special) CLEVELAND, . Feb. 5 Evidence Evi-dence Itself goes on trial In Cleveland Monday. This Is In the ctise of William McGannon. chief Justice of tho mu-j mu-j nlclpal court and nationally known for 1 his court reforms, who's accused of shooting and killing his friend, ll.ir-jold ll.ir-jold C. Kagy, a garage proprietor. Evidence by which trials are decided de-cided Stands Indicted by Prof. Roscoe Pound, dean of llarard Law school, j who s 1 1 1 "Tho Inherent unreliability Of evidence evi-dence Is one of the chief difficulties authorities face In administering Jus-j tice." LK8SON l OR M I I i n S Pound Is making a Hurvey of the administration of Justice In Cleveland, not only to Improve local conditions but to "establish a basis on which every city can erect better systems. The McGannon trial and the Pound survey are going forward simultaneously. simultane-ously. Pound will study the case, closely. He may arrive at unie pro-; cess which will help judes and Jur-i to sift the truth from conflicting testimony- Four figures stand out among the hundred or more in the case These are McGannon, John W. Joyce, -loonkecper; Miss May Neely, who claims she was trailing McGannon. and Mrs. McGannon. who's fighting to prove her husband innocent. n BT1 RY AlH hUND W N' W Why Miss Neely was trailing the Judge hus not been explained In eourt. She says that after the murdt r she offered to take the blame, but McGannon McGan-non told her it was too late. Iter, she says, he offered her $500 to keep quiet. This the Judge denies. McGannon and Kagy met Joyce In an outlying saloon. They drove downtown down-town In McGannon's automobile Ka-g Ka-g was at the wheel. This is agreed, nothing else, except that at the end of the trip Kagy was shot down on the street and Joyce and a third man fled from the scene. The entlro case centers on the Identification of this third man. Joyce was tried for murder and acquitted. ac-quitted. Then McGannon was Indicted, Indict-ed, tried and the Jury disagreed. Now he's to be tried again. In the event of another disagreement the case mlKhl be dropped. Hut McGannon demands de-mands complete acquittal, for disbarment dis-barment proceedings uKalnst him are pending and his professional career Is at stake. CONFLICT l TES1 MONT. The case" furnishes many Instances of "tho Inherent unreliability of evidence" evi-dence" Consider some of them: Contradiction as to third man: IJoyc- and eight other wltnessi tOSi llfled McGanlOn was the third man. I at the shooting; 12 witnesses corrob-, orated McGannon's testimony that he was several blocks, from the shootlng Contradiction as to tblrd man s double: dou-ble: Several witnesses identified McGannon Mc-Gannon as the third man who fled from the scene of the .-booiin. two witnesses swore that after McGannon had parted with Joyce and Kagy SV-!era SV-!era blocks from the Shooting scene ja third man who resembled McGannon McGan-non joined them. Contradiction as to Miss Neely Miss Mealy testified she was trailing McGannon. stood two blocks from th scene- of the shooting, and saw the Judge pull something from his pocket pock-et at the moment tho shot was fired; i a chuuffeur testified ho was driving ' Miss Neely severul miles away at this ! moment. Contradiction as to time: Police testified the shooting occurred at 12:33 a. m- and two detectives testified testi-fied they met McGannon between 12:3i and 12:45 a. m. walking from I the scene of tho crime; McGannon and three witnesses claimed he was aboard a street car on his way homo at 12:30 a. m-, and his wife testified be reached home at 1:05 a. m., which conforms to their story. Among many other contradictions this one stands foremost The samo I prosecutor who demanded that Joyce be convicted of the murder later demanded de-manded McGannon be convicted of tho crime. |
