Passage of the Wheelan Bills.
Measures Extended Abuses Which the Commonwealth Club Bills Had Been
Drawn to Prevent - Went Through Both Houses Without the Members
Thoroughly Understanding Their Significance.
The so-called Wheelan bills were passed in much the same way as was the
Change of Venue bill. These measures will perhaps be better understood
in comparison with certain of the Commonwealth Club bills which were
considered in a previous chapter.
Among the Commonwealth bills was one which denied a defendant under
indictment a copy of the testimony taken in the Grand Jury room. The
measure was drawn on the theory that Grand Juries deal principally with
secret offenses, and that the testimony had better be brought out before
the trial Court. One object of the proposed law was to prevent the
defendant giving out testimony with the deliberate object of prejudicing
the entire community against him, and thus increasing the difficulty of
getting petty juries to try him.
Furthermore, there are instances, as when Abe Ruef was before the Grand
Jury at San Francisco, when the ends of justice require that the
testimony given shall be kept secret. But, in spite of these and other
considerations, the measure in question was allowed to die in Committee.
On the other hand two bills requiring that transcript of such testimony
be given the defendant passed both Senate and Assembly. They were
introduced by Wheelan of San Francisco.