Alger Hiss Hung Jury

Genre: Newsreel

Year Published: 1949

Creator: Universal International

Description: 1949. Narrated by Ed Herlihy. Universal-International. Home transfer from 16mm original. Covers the trial of Alger Hiss, a former State Department official accused of perjury by Whittaker Chambers, a self-identified former communist. The jury deliberated for 28 hours but reached a deadlock with an 8 to 4 vote for conviction, leading to a retrial in the fall. The case raised questions about truth and deception between Hiss and Chambers. Keywords Alger Hiss, Whittaker Chambers, perjury, trial, jury, deadlock, retrial, State Department, communism, verdict

Complete Record: 1949. Narrated by Ed Herlihy. Universal-International. Home transfer from 16mm original. Covers the trial of Alger Hiss, a former State Department official accused of perjury by Whittaker Chambers, a self-identified former communist. The jury deliberated for 28 hours but reached a deadlock with an 8 to 4 vote for conviction, leading to a retrial in the fall. The case raised questions about truth and deception between Hiss and Chambers.

Keywords

Alger Hiss, Whittaker Chambers, perjury, trial, jury, deadlock, retrial, State Department, communism, verdict

Transcription

Alger Hiss former State Department official arrives at federal court in New York with his wife to hear the verdict on the perjury charges of which he was accused by Whittaker Chambers mr. chambers self-confessed former communist agents and claimed he received from hiss a number of secret State Department papers for delivery to the Russian on his farm in Westminster Maryland chambers had no comment to make at the end of the trial presided over by Judge Samuel H Coughlin the case was legal in the United States versus Alger Hiss but the popular question was simply who was lying his four chambers the jury after deliberating 28 hours ended in a deadlock standing eight to four for conviction his to hope for complete exoneration faces a retrial in the fall [Music]