William "Big Bill" Haywood Trial: 1907

The prosecution's star witness was Harry Orchard, the confessed assassin. Orchard had a long criminal career, however, and readily admitted that he lied many times in the past "whenever it suited my purpose." Nevertheless, Orchard stuck with his story that Haywood and Moyer wanted him to murder Steunenberg. Darrow suspected that the mining companies were Orchard's real masters and said so to the jury:

The mine owners of Colorado and Idaho are pulling the wires to make you dance like puppets. They gathered these officers of the Western Federation of Miners and sent them here to be tried and hanged.

When the prosecutors called Haywood to take the stand, Haywood denied hiring Orchard to kill Frank Steunenberg. He admitted that he hated the former governor, but no more or less than could be expected from a union radical. Responding to the prosecution's question, Haywood said:

I felt toward him much as I did toward you and others who were responsible for martial law and the bull pen in the Coeur d'Alene.

Darrow questioned more than 80 character witnesses who knew Orchard well and who testified that he could not be trusted to tell the truth. Most of this testimony was redundant, however, since Orchard had already admitted to a history of chronic lying. Darrow went on to declare that the real issue was big business' effort to crucify Haywood and the unions. Addressing the jury, Darrow said:

Gentlemen, it is not for him alone that I speak. I speak for the poor, for the weak, for the weary, for that long line of men who, in darkness and despair, have borne the labors of the human race. The eyes of the world are upon you, upon you twelve men of Idaho tonight.… If you kill him your act will be applauded by many. If you should decree Bill Haywood's death, in the railroad offices of our great cities men will applaud your names. If you decree his death, amongst the spiders of Wall Street will go up paeans of praise for these twelve good men and true.

Because the jury was composed of Idaho farmers, Darrow deliberately appealed to their working-class roots. His lengthy closing argument made it sound as if all farmers and miners were brothers united against their corporate oppressors.

Prosecutor William Borah tried to get the jury to focus on the real issue, namely whether Haywood was a party to Steunenberg's murder as Orchard had claimed:

[T]hat bleak winter night with the blood of my dear friend marking the white earth, I saw Idaho dishonored and disgraced. I saw murder, no, a thousand times worse, I saw anarchy unfold its red menace.…This trial has no other purpose or implication than conviction and punishment of the assassins of Governor Steunenberg.

Not only did Borah try to keep the jury's focus on the heinous crime of murder-by-hire, but Borah saw Darrow's political appeal to the jury as a twoedged sword and effectively wielded it against him. Borah knew that the unpopular aspect of the union movement was its connection with anarchists, Wobblies, and others trying to overthrow the government. Knowing that Haywood's connection with these elements was well publicized, Borah played on the threat of social revolution to traditional values:

We see anarchy, that pale, restless, hungry demon from the crypts of hell, fighting for a foothold in Idaho! Should we compromise with it? Or should we crush it ?. I only want what you want, the gates to our homes, the yard gate whose inward swing tells of the returning husband and father, shielded and guarded by the courage and manhood of Idaho juries!