California Penal Code, Sec. 518.
California Penal Code, Sec. 519.
The general feeling regarding the Schmitz decision was well expressed by Attorney J. C. Hutchinson, in a letter to Justice Cooper. The letter follows:
“Hon. James A. Cooper, Presiding Justice of the District Court of Appeals, First District, 1420 Sutter street, city. Dear Sir: Yours of the 15th inst. received. I did not expect you to reply to mine of the 13th inst., which was more in the nature of an ejaculatory protest than a letter. Nevertheless, I think you are right to reply, especially as I know you have replied to letters complimenting you on the same decision.
“I have never before written a letter to a judge commenting upon a decision in which he had taken part, and I ordinarily would consider such a course highly unprofessional. During twenty-five years’ practice, I have always remained silent in the face of decisions, however adverse, even in some cases where I was perfectly well aware that improper influences behind the scenes had prevented me from obtaining justice. But in this case the situation is different from anything I have ever experienced. The very air seems to be full of revolutionary feeling. At the universities, clubs, in the trains, on the streets and in the home, I find no one (except the friends, connections and lawyers of the grafters) speak with anything but emphatic protest against this decision so far as it relates to the validity of the indictment.
“I have cast no personal reflection upon yourself. The attack is upon the atmospheric environment of a statement which could lead a man of your integrity and intelligence honestly to believe that such a decision could be correct; and if the Supreme Court should unanimously hold the same, that would, according to my view, only make the matter so much the worse.
“Very respectfully yours,