Biography
Plinio Graciani was a Puerto Rican Nationalist organizer in Ponce and a commander of its Cadets of the Republic. He helped organize the March 21, 1937 demonstration that police attacked in the Ponce Massacre. Authorities arrested him and charged him with riot; he was subsequently among the Nationalists prosecuted for the deaths of two policemen. The defense challenged the government’s account of the shooting in the Ponce trials.
The September 21, 1937 New Masses editorial individually lists this defendant among ten Nationalists then facing the Ponce murder trial and reports that the group had been imprisoned for six months in La Princesa under collective bail totaling $250,000. This is a contemporary approximate custody-to-date report, not a completed six-month sentence, exact admission date, individual bail amount or final conviction. Its description of a hand-picked jury and government campaign is the editorial’s allegation. The existing prosecution is retained without a duplicate case. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/new-masses/1937/v24n13-sep-21-1937-NM.pdf#page=18