University of California Berkeley of California Regional Oral History Office University California The Bancroft Library Berkeley. George T. Davis SAN FRANCISCO TRIAL LAWYER: IN DEFENSE OF DUE PROCESS, 1930s TO 1990s With an Introduction by Dale H. Champion Interviews Conducted by Carole Hicke in 1986 and 1987 of California Copyright 1993 by The Regents of the University Since 1954 the Regional Oral History Office has been interviewing leading participants in or well -placed witnesses to major events in the development of Northern California, the West, and the Nation. Oral history is a modern research technique involving an interviewee and an informed interviewer in spontaneous conversation. The taped record is transcribed, lightly edited for continuity and clarity, and reviewed by the interviewee. The resulting manuscript is typed in final form, indexed, bound with photographs and illustrative materials, and placed in The Bancroft Library at the University of California, Berkeley, and other research collections for scholarly use. Because it is primary material, oral history is not intended to present the final, verified, or complete narrative of events. It is a spoken account, offered by the interviewee in response to questioning, and as such it is reflective, partisan, deeply involved, and irreplaceable. ************************************ All uses of this manuscript are covered by a legal agreement between The Regents of the University of California and George T. Davis dated December 20, 1990. The manuscript is thereby made available for research purposes. All literary rights in the manuscript, including the right to publish, are reserved to The Bancroft Library of the University of California, Berkeley. No part of the manuscript may be quoted for publication without the written permission of the Director of The Bancroft Library of the University of California, Berkeley. Requests for permission to quote for publication should be addressed to the Regional Oral History Office, 486 Library, University of California, Berkeley 94720, and should include identification of the specific passages to be quoted, anticipated use of the passages, and identification of the user. The legal agreement with George T. Davis requires that he be notified of the request and allowed thirty days in which to respond. It is recommended that this oral history be cited as follows: George T. Davis, "San Francisco Trial Lawyer: In Defense of Due Process, 1930s to 1990s," an oral history conducted in 1986 and 1987 by Carole Hicke, Regional Oral History Office, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, 1993. Copy no. George T. Davis, 1989 Photograph by Russell D. Curtis Courtesy of the Recorder Cataloging information DAVIS, George T. (b. 1907) Trial Lawyer San Francisco Trial Lawyer: In Defense of Due Process. 1930s to 1990s. 1993, vii, 269 pp. Boalt Hall Law School; Depression and politics in San Franciso in the 1930s; San Francisco politics in the 1930s; Tom Mooney case; Caryl Chessman case; freeing Alfried Krupp from prison; strategies in the courtroom: use of drama, jury persuasion, hypnosis and psychiatry; constitutional rights: due process, right to property; capital punishment; changes in law practice and in the law; expert witnesses; the U.S. Supreme Court; military trials; trial of Joe Sousa, Bertha Berger, Kenneth Long, Burton Abbott. Introduction by Dale H. Champion. Interviewed 1986 and 1987 by Carole Hicke. The Regional Oral History Office, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. TABLE OF CONTENTS --George T. Davis INTRODUCTION- -by Dale H. Champion i INTERVIEW HISTORY- -by Carole Hicke iv BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION v I BACKGROUND 1 Parents and Early Childhood 1 School Days 5 Music and Drumming 9 Around the World as a Musician, Summer 1926 11 Learning Values and Philosophy 17 High School and Junior College, 1920s 21 University of California, Berkeley 24 Deciding to Be a Lawyer 28 Family Relationships 29 Motivation 33 Memorable People 35 The San Quentin Hanging 43 II FIRST EXPERIENCES IN THE LAW AND POLITICS 49 The Depression Years 49 The District Attorney's Office 52 Politics in the 1930s: The 1936 Campaign 55 Truman's Campaign Manager for Northern California: 1948 57 The Winds of Politics: Matt Brady, Tom Mooney, Caryl Chessman 61 Indictment: Strategy of the Trial Lawyer 64 III DUE PROCESS: GUARANTEE OF LIFE, LIBERTY, AND PROPERTY 71 Due Process: A Lawyer's Goal 71 Liberty: Tom Mooney and Imprisonment 72 First Contact with Case: 1934 72 Tom Mooney 78 The Case 79 Transfer of Custody 87 Rena Mooney 92 Not Accepting Fees 93 Mooney 's Public Relations 95 The Political Solution 98 Mooney 's Pardon 101 The Celebration 104 The Aftermath 105 Due Process Guarantee of Life: Caryl Chessman and Capital Punishment 107 Beginnings: 1955 107 Reflections on Death Penalty and Changes in the Courts 109 Chessman's Execution 113 Judge Goodman's Feelings 116 Governor Brown's Decision 118 Alfried Krupp: Freedom and the Right to Property, 1951 120 IV THE SKILLFUL PRACTICE OF LAW 128 A Military Trial: The Korean Case 128 Attitude Toward Juries 134 Early Development of Skills 135 The Johnson Case 136 Bertha Berger Case 137 Trying Every Case to the Limit: Joe Souza 142 Jury Persuasion 144 Some Reflections on Doing an Oral History 146 Voir Dire and Opening Statement 149 Psychiatry and Hypnosis: The Long Case 154 General Uses of Psychiatry 154 Use of Hypnosis in the Law: A Demonstration 156 The Long Case, 1948: Use of Pentothal 161 More on Hypnosis: Dr. Joseph Catton 176 Publicity and Goals 178 The Mooney Scrapbook 178 Favorable Publicity in the Midst of Controversy 182 Due Process and the Cause Celebre in the U.S., Philippines, Pakistan, China 184 Due Process: A Lawyer's Goal 185 Public Ownership of Utilities: Hetch Hetchy Reservoir 191 V CHANGES IN THE LAW 194 Hypnosis: A Recent Supreme Court Ruling 194 The Earl Warren Court: 1952-1968 197 The Burger and Rehnquist Courts: 1968 to Present 201 Changes in Law Practice 204 Grand Jury Indictments: Chessman's Book 208 Value of a Positive Attitude 215 The Character of Criminal Defendants 222 The Client-Lawyer Relationship 227 The Growing Complexity of Criminal Law 229 Discovery 233 Problems of Solo Practice 234 Burton Abbott Case 235 Rewards of Practicing Law 237 VI COMMUNITY ACTIVITIES 239 War Memorial Commission: 1955-1982 239 Chinese Culture Foundation 241 United Greek Orthodox Charities 243 Benny Bufano 245 The Bible Club 247 Saints and Sinners Club 250 Political Campaigns 251 Polo Playing 252 APPENDICES 258 A. "Davis for the Defense," Honolulu. June 1987 259 B. "A Legendary Lawyer," Honolulu Star-Bulletin. September 30, 1992 262 C. "Davis* Six Decades: Bakker and Dozens," The Recorder. November 8, 1989 264 D. Reflections on Capital Punishment, a dictation by George T. Davis 266 E. George T. Davis Bibliography 284 INDEX 286 INTRODUCTION --by Dale H. Champion I was a barefoot boy in overalls, growing up in a small farm town east of Los Angeles, when I first heard about the Tom Mooney case, which was to catapult George T. Davis to public attention as a criminal lawyer, nationally and internationally. It was the latter 1930s, and my politically progressive family discussed the case around the kitchen table. It was then that George Davis burst into the news in the forefront of the movement to free Mooney, San Francisco labor agitator become labor martyr, from his cell at San Quentin Prison. He had been confined there for two decades- -first under sentence of death, later commuted to life imprisonment- -on murder charges stemming from the 1916 Preparedness Day parade bombing in San Francisco that killed ten people and seriously wounded forty others. His supporters contended that prosecutors, bowing to powerful antilabor interests, used fabricated evidence and coached testimony to convict him. The case went from court to court, from Sacramento to the White House before it reached the hands of George Davis. He was only twenty- seven and a few years out of law school when he took over the most celebrated case of the era. His youth clearly was an asset in a case that had drained the energies of so many before. He was a crack athlete and as fit and quick as a champion boxer. Davis won a U.S. Supreme Court decision that ordered a review of the Mooney trial. Although he eventually lost the appeal, Davis established a milestone ruling on the issue of due process in criminal law, and his bestirring of what had become a dormant cause led Democratic Governor Culbert L. Olson to grant Mooney a full pardon on January 7, 1939 just days after entering office. The momentous pardoning ceremony, attended by thousands of friends of labor from up and down California, was broadcast around the world. Afterward, Mooney and Davis marched ahead of waves of supporters from the Ferry Building up to Market Street, along the same path as the Preparedness Day parade, to San Francisco's City Hall, where Mooney spoke to a cheering crowd of more than 50,000. The prominence Davis enjoyed from the Mooney case swiftly boosted him into the ranks of San Francisco's most notable trial lawyers. He joined the company of such masterful courtroom performers as Edwin fe Theodore Walter Jake McKenzie, John Taaf , Roche, McGovern, Ehrlich, James Martin Maclnnis, Vincent Hallinan, Marvin Lewis, and Melvin Belli. These were all uncommon men, men with powerful personalities and legendary reputations for their oratorical skills and their cunning courtroom strategies. This was pre-TV. When they went to trial, courtrooms brimmed with avid spectators. Lines of people eagerly waiting for an empty seat stretched down marble corridors. Press flashbulbs ii blazed. The cases these lawyers tried, especially the murder cases, were headline news. Of these lions of the bar, only Davis and Belli, both in their eighties, are alive today, both still active.