The Press: Medicine & Chaser

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On Sept. 10 the San Francisco Chronicle burst out with a streaming black headline: LAMSON WINS NEW TRIAL. It would be hard to guess who was most astonished: Hearst's San Francisco Examiner which apparently had been badly scooped or Chief Justice William Harrison Waste of the California Supreme Court or David A. Lamson, sitting in his death cell at San Quentin Prison. Last year a San Jose jury had found the young Stanford University Press salesmanager guilty of murder after it refused to believe his story that his wife Allene had slipped in the bathtub and fatally fractured her skull (TIME, Sept. 11, 1933). Judge Waste and his associates on the Supreme bench last week declared the Lamson new-trial story untrue, cited the Chronicle, Editor Chester Rowell and Managing Editor William D. Chandler for contempt of court. Crowds that flocked to the hearing to see Republican Pundit Rowell squirm in a witness chair were disappointed. The editors were represented by lawyers. Scolded Justice Waste: "It does not look like due diligence was exercised to determine whether the information on the article was true. I am pestered by telephone calls on all important cases. A word to the Chief Justice would have brought prompt information that no decision had been reached." Put in Associate Justice Preston: "It would appear you were looking for a scoop and were afraid to investigate because you might find out it was incorrect. . . . You don't tell us where you got this information. It looks as if you would rather take your medicine than tell us." Two days later the Chronicle took its medicine—$500 fine for the newspaper, $250 each for Editors Rowell & Chandler. But on the day after that, the dose was washed down by a delicious chaser. The Supreme Court ordered a new trial for David A. Lamson.