verdict or plea of guilty, with the right reserved for the Court of
extending the time to ten days. The sixth measure defines "a motion in
arrest of judgment."

Such was the outcome of the effort made by reputable lawyers and public
spirited laymen to eliminate quackery from the practice of the criminal
law. But measures calculated to make the practice of the criminal law
even more involved and technical than it is were granted more
consideration. Many of them passed both houses. How they were passed and
what they are will be considered in another chapter.



[72] No sooner had the indictments been returned in the San Francisco
cases than the validity of the indicting Grand Jury was attacked. For
months that issue occupied the attention of the Courts. One by one the
members of the Grand Jury were dragged into Court, and in effect placed
on trial that technical disqualification if such existed might be
established. The greater part of a day was, for example, consumed in
thrashing over the question whether one or three motions had been made
in nominating the stenographer to the Grand Jury.

Then came appeals to the higher Courts which occupied more months and
all but endless labor and expense.

When the attacks on the Grand Jury had been met and disposed of, and the
defendants brought to the trial Court, the Prosecution found its labors
scarcely begun. Every trial juror was placed on trial. Weeks and even
months were required, because of technical objections, to secure a trial
jury.