Note 421 — Chapter XXV · The Shooting of Heney.

Judge Lawlor’s statement to the jury was as follows: “Gentlemen of the Jury: I have a few words to say to you before this trial is resumed at this time. Since you have been sworn as jurors the Court has on many occasions, with elaborateness and repetition, sought to convey to your minds an understanding of your duties as jurors in this case. It has been pointed out to you that to the charge which is on trial here, the defendant, Abraham Ruef, has interposed a plea of not guilty. That charge, considered in connection with that plea, puts in issue, for the determination of this Court and jury, the allegations of that charge. You have been sworn as jurors to pass upon the facts in the case and to apply those facts, when resolved from the evidence, to the rules of law which the Court shall finally state to you to govern you in the rendition of your verdict. These many admonitions, as it has also been pointed out to you from time to time, are founded upon a provision of the law which makes it the duty of the Court to administer those admonitions.

“The purpose of the law requiring those admonitions to be given is that when a jury is sworn to try an action it shall divest itself of all matters which theretofore might have found lodgment in the minds of the members and to proceed to render a verdict solely upon the matters which shall be brought to the attention of the jury in the due course of judicial proceedings. These constant reminders of that duty are calculated to keep the sense of jurors alive to a full compliance therewith.

“I doubt if anything I could say at this time would tend to amplify what has already been declared from time to time in that behalf, but in view of a transaction that occurred in the courtroom on the afternoon of Friday, November 13, 1908, the Court deems it proper to re-emphasize with all the power that it may command the duty of the jury to proceed to the further discharge of its duty at this time in utter disregard of that transaction. The Court realizes that the jurors may have heard or seen a part of that transaction, or that phases of that transaction may have been communicated to the jury. Now, without regard to what extent that assumption may be justified, the Court desires the jurors to in every manner relieve their minds of any impression or anything that they have heard, or anything that has been said, or anything that has been communicated, or that shall hereafter he communicated concerning that transaction; in other words, we are to resume this trial at this time at precisely the point that had been reached when the recess, during which the transaction occurred, was declared.

“I may state to you generally, that on that occasion Mr. Francis J. Heney, the Assistant District Attorney, was shot by a man bearing the name of Morris Haas; that Mr. Heney was wounded as a result of that assault. Happily the injury was not a serious one, and at this time there is every indication that Mr. Heney will recover from that injury.

“Now, that transaction, so far as this Court and the jury, the defendant at the bar, the People of the State of California, the counsel and all other interests interested or involved in this trial are concerned, is to stand as though it had not occurred; no person is to be charged with any responsibility for that transaction; this is not the place for the consideration of that transaction.

“It may be stated also to you that the assailant afterward took his own life while he was confined in the County Jail upon his arrest in connection with that transaction.

“And neither matter, I repeat, should find any place in your minds. It should not in any manner form anything in the nature of bias or prejudice concerning anyone.

“This Court would despair of having the law administered upon the charge at bar if the jurors did not in every manner comply with the admonition of the Court to exclude that transaction entirely from their minds.”