“You feel that your conscience would enable you to act fairly?” “I do. If I erred at all it would be on the other side, so as to be sure that I did the accused no injustice.”
This examination went on for several days. The same examination of the Grand Jurors followed in the case of Ruef and Schmitz, and was repeated for the third time on behalf of public-service corporation agents who were indicted later.
The question of the eligibility of Grand Juror Wise was finally decided by the State Supreme Court in the matter of the application of A. Ruef for a writ of habeas corpus (150 California, p. 665.) The Court held that the presence on the Grand Jury of a member who had served and been discharged as a juror by a court of record within a year of the time that he had been summoned and impaneled to act as a grand juror does not affect the validity of an indictment found by the Grand Jury.
The Chronicle, in its issue of December 18, 1906, said of the attack upon the Grand Jury:
“The fact that the felons whom we are trying to convict are officials has nothing to do with their demonstration of the fact that it is impossible, under the laws, to put thieves in the penitentiary, when there is a large band rounded up at one time and they all fight. Under our laws the half-dozen rascals who have already been indicted for their share in the orgy of official plunder in this city can block our criminal courts. The disgraceful farce of putting the Grand Jurors and the District Attorney on trial instead of the scoundrels who have been indicted can apparently be protracted for weeks. Happily the Legislature meets early next month, and if it does not put a speedy end to it we are mistaken. We are getting an object lesson which, perhaps, was needed. The whole miserable machinery of obstruction must be swept away. Whoever is indicted by a Grand Jury must go to trial, unless, in the opinion of the trial Judge, extraordinary conditions indicate that some inquiry should be made to be conducted solely by himself. The public will be satisfied with nothing short of that, nor will it be satisfied with that. The abuses of appeal must be ended.”
Mr. Spreckels testified in part as follows: “I am not interested in the downfall of any man, either Eugene E. Schmitz or Abraham Ruef. I did guarantee the sum of $100,000 to detect any wrongdoing whatsoever in the city of San Francisco. I indicated that to Mr. Heney. I cannot recollect as to dates, but I think it was a short while before the commencement of these proceedings. It was since the calamity of April 18. I had been interested for a long while before that in starting an investigation.... I did not guarantee to Mr. Heney $100,000, but I did guarantee that for the purpose of investigation for the collection of evidence, I would personally guarantee $100,000 for the expenses.... My object was merely to ascertain the truth or falsity of things that had been generally stated. Some of the things I had known of myself. I knew there was an effort made in the city here of doing things in the past. Mr. Ruef, himself, had had a conversation with me which indicated that he was in a position to do certain things, and knowing these things I was willing that an investigation should proceed to the bottom, and to furnish the money necessary to collect the evidence. I have stated publicly relative to this fund of $100,000.”