Biography
Edward Horacek was one of ten workers arrested in a 1923 Pittsburgh red raid and indicted under Pennsylvania's Sedition Act. Tried in late 1925, he was the first of the defendants found guilty; the International Labor Defense reported his conviction and appeal in the first issue of Labor Defender (January 1926).
The February 11 Pittsburgh defense report, printing E. J. Horacek and identifying him as a machinists’ union member, says his request for a new trial had been argued and the decision was still awaited. This is a pending procedural stage, not a granted new trial, acquittal or fresh custody endpoint. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1926/1926-ny/v03-n028-NY-feb-13-1926-DW-LOC.pdf#page=3
A. Jakira's August 1927 Labor Defender report identifies Judge Prather as the judge who tried Horacek and says he was found guilty on two counts after a week-long trial following Fred Merrick's November 1925 hearing. Attorney Isaac Ferguson sought a new trial. The article separately reports that eight other Pittsburgh defendants' indictments had been quashed; that dismissal is not attributed to Horacek, whose disposition was different. The source does not establish a new custody endpoint or completed duration.
