The ten year sentence imposed by the Innsbruck court upon the Jewish student Philip Halsmann on the charge of patricide was annulled by the higher court in Vienna which reviewed the case here Tuesday and Wednesday. Despite the request of the defense that the revision of the trial take place in Vienna instead of Innsbruck, retrial was ordered in Innsbruck by the higher court, it being the custom that the court holding the previous trial review the case.
Anti-Semitic prejudice among the jury in the court of Innsbruck, a city known as a nest of anti-Jewish prejudice, as it is one of the strongest Hakenkreuzler centers in Austria, was one of the grounds presented by the defense in asking that the higher court review Philip Halsmann’s case. The jury consisted mainly of professional men, members of such organizations.
The witnesses at the trial were influenced by anti-Semitic feeling and even the Crown witnesses made anti-Semitic remarks while they were in the proximity of the jury, both against Halsmann as an individual and against the Jews as a whole, the statement submitted to the Supreme Court by the counsel for the defense declares. The play upon anti-Semitic feeling, it says, was the chief factor in bringing about the return of the verdict of guilty. In addition, it is claimed, several members of the jury were asleep during the proceedings so that in any (Continued on Page 4)
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