Biography
James Schmidt was an itinerant IWW member prosecuted at Aberdeen, South Dakota in 1915 for killing a railroad brakeman. By the defense account reported in labor and later scholarly sources, the brakeman attempted to extort money from Schmidt and then threatened or tried to shoot him; Schmidt maintained he acted in self-defense. The case went to trial, the jury failed to reach a verdict — a majority reportedly favoring acquittal on self-defense grounds — and Schmidt remained confined for a little more than a year while prosecutors considered a retrial. The charge was dismissed on October 7, 1916 and he was released. Descriptions of the case as dismissed "without trial" are misleading: there was a trial, it ended without a verdict, and no retrial followed. The exact institution of his custody is unresolved.
