Biography
Edward Griffin, also spelled Griffen in the same report, was a 17-year-old Black Brooklyn youth whom the Daily Worker of December 29, 1932, page 1, reported was facing a murder prosecution. He was accused of holding up and killing a businessman at the latter's home. The International Labor Defense challenged the identification: police linked a hat bearing initials that were not Griffin's to a shopkeeper who said he resembled its purchaser, while his family said he had attended a relative's funeral at the time. The ILD offered a defense alongside counsel already retained by the family. A hearing at Brooklyn Homicide Court was announced for January 4, 1933. The newspaper described a threat of execution; it did not establish a death sentence, conviction, exact arrest day or eventual outcome.
The December 31 account identifies the murder accusation concerning Selati and describes four witnesses supporting Griffin’s presence at his mother’s wake at 183 McKibben Street. That is the reported defense alibi, not a judicial finding. The scheduled January 4 hearing is not an intake or release day. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1932/v09-n313-NY-dec-31-1932-DW-LOC.pdf#page=1
