Biography
J. A. Griffith, known as Jack, was a laborer and Industrial Workers of the World job delegate. He was prosecuted in Billings for statements about the federal IWW trial in Chicago. The Montana Supreme Court reversed his sedition conviction because the statements did not fall within the law’s terms. He was released from Deer Lodge on October 1, 1919.
The March 1920 One Big Union Monthly prisoner roster provides a contemporaneous procedural account. The roster dates the Billings, Montana sedition arrest to July 18, 1918, and reports reversal/dismissal. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/one-big-union-monthly/v02n03-mar-1920_One%20Big%20Union.pdf#page=11
The original Montana State Prison intake form lists an age of 47, birth in Arkansas, and occupation as laborer. It records actual receipt at Deer Lodge on 1918-12-16 and sentencing on 1918-12-10 in the state sedition case. The admission is distinguished from an earlier arrest, and the printed sentence is distinguished from actual service; no physical discharge is supplied. It includes named frontal and profile photographs. Source: https://clcowgill.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/a-m.pdf#page=13
