See [Chapter IV].
This view was entirely justified by the outcome in the Coffey case. Coffey was one of the boodle Supervisors who had at the test refused “to go back on his class.” He was tried for bribe-taking and convicted. In the Court of Appeal practically the same points were raised in his favor as were raised in the Ruef case. The Appellate Court refused to interfere. The Supreme Court, by a three to four decision, granted Coffey a rehearing and later a new trial. The line-up of the eleven judges was the same in Coffey’s case as in Ruef’s—seven found Coffey had had a fair trial; four found that he had not. The four—under the rules of the legal game—were more potent than the seven. The jury verdict was nullified. The indictments against Coffey were finally dismissed. Had the Supreme Court’s order for a rehearing of the Ruef case stood, the outcome would have unquestionably been the same.
Some of the ablest men in the State urged impeachment proceedings. “If the charges,” said United States Senator John D. Works in a letter to State Senator Hewitt, “made against Judge Henshaw by the Attorney-General of this State, under oath, are true, why is it the Legislature of this State before this has not commenced impeachment proceedings against him?
“The legislature has no right to shrink from this duty and responsibility and relieve itself from taking such a step by relegating that duty and responsibility to The People of the State by the enactment of recall legislation. If Judge Henshaw, or any other judge, has violated his duty to the State and betrayed his office as the charges made against him indicate, the duty of the legislature is imperative, and that duty should be performed without hesitation and without delay.”
Justice Henshaw, in discussing Judge Works’ letter, in an interview in the San Francisco Examiner, February 15, 1911, is quoted as saying: “All the charges made by Attorney General Webb in his affidavit attacking the Ruef rehearing order of January 30th are true. The orders were signed in the manner stated and I told him so when he visited my office. There was nothing unusual about it. It was done in accordance with the usual practice of this court.
“We seldom meet in session to sign the orders. There may be twenty cases to be passed on in one week. Each Justice looks them over at his leisure and signs what orders he agrees to.
“I was out of the State, as Mr. Webb says, and at the time that he says. I did not even imagine that there was a legal point involved. The practice never has been questioned before.”