The Trial of the Chicago 7: History, Legacy and Trial Transcript - Bruce A. Ragsdale

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trial under any circumstances. At 73, Hoffman had been on the federal bench since his appointment by Eisenhower in 1953, and lawyers in Chicago described him as a judge who usually sided with the government attorneys. Judge Hoffman was proud of the efficiency with which he managed cases, and from the first encounters with the defense attorneys, he was determined to show that he would exercise strong control over the case. When four of the attorneys serving the defense during the pretrial proceedings withdrew from the case before the start of the trial, Hoffman held them in contempt, ordered their arrest, and had two of them jailed. A nationwide protest of prominent lawyers convinced Judge Hoffman to relent and accept the new defense team of William Kunstler and Leonard Weinglass. Throughout the trial, Kunstler and Weinglass aggressively challenged Judge Hoffman’s procedural rulings, which almost uniformly affirmed the motions of the prosecution.

      In his examination of prospective jurors, Hoffman ignored all but one of the questions submitted by the defense attorneys and never asked potential jurors about pretrial publicity or about their attitudes toward student radicals or the Vietnam War. The jury of ten women and two men was selected in a day. Within a week, Hoffman learned that the homes of two jurors had received identical letters saying that the Black Panthers were watching them. After one of those two jurors acknowledged that she could not be impartial in light of the threat, the judge replaced her with an alternate juror and sequestered the remaining jurors for the duration of the trial. Seale denied any Black Panther involvement with the letters.

      A mistrial for Bobby Seale

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      Conflict over the defense attorneys reemerged when Bobby Seale refused to be represented by anyone other than Charles Garry, who originally agreed to represent the defendants but remained in California because of an illness. Judge Hoffman refused Seale’s subsequent request to represent himself, and Seale responded with a barrage of courtroom denunciations of the judge as a “pig,” a “fascist,” and a “racist.” When the prosecuting attorney accused Seale of encouraging Black Panthers in the courtroom to defend him, the proceedings degenerated into worse shouting matches. Seale condemned the judge for keeping a picture of the slave owner George Washington above the bench, and Hoffman then followed through on his repeated warning to restrain Seale. In what provided for many the indelible image of the trial, Judge Hoffman ordered U.S. marshals to bind and gag Seale before his appearances in the courtroom. Hoffman allowed Seale in court without restraints the following week, but when Seale argued for his right to cross-examine a witness, Judge Hoffman sentenced him to four years in prison for contempt of court and declared a mistrial in the prosecution of Seale. The Chicago Eight were now the Chicago Seven.

      The government’s case

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      Seale’s attempts to cross-examine witnesses came as the government presented its case against the defendants. Led by Thomas Foran and Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Schultz, the government prosecutors relied primarily on the testimony of undercover policemen and informers. Police officer Robert Pierson described how he let his hair grow, rented a motorcycle, and dressed in biker clothes for convention week. He testified that he heard Abbie Hoffman say that the demonstrators would break windows if the police pushed them out of Lincoln Park for a second night, and that Rubin, Seale, and Davis had urged crowds to resist the police or to employ violence. William Frapolly, another policeman, told the court how he enrolled in an Illinois college, grew sideburns and a goatee, and then joined Students for a Democratic Society, the National Mobilization Committee, and other peace groups. Frapolly testified that he had attended various planning meetings and that he had heard nearly all of the defendants state their intention to incite confrontations with the police and to pro-mote other civil disturbances. He also testified that Wiener and Froines had openly discussed the use of incendiary devices and chemical bombs. The government called 53 witnesses, most of whom recounted similar encounters with the defendants.

      The defense strategy

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      The defendants and their attorneys went well beyond the rebuttal of the criminal charges and sought to portray the proceedings as a political trial rather than a criminal prosecution. In their legal arguments, in their courtroom behavior, and in their numerous public appearances, they challenged the legitimacy of the court and the judge as well as the substance of the indictment. The trial became for the defense an opportunity to portray the dissent movement that had converged on Chicago for the Democratic Convention.

      The defense called more than 100 witnesses, many of them participants or by-standers in the clashes between the police and the demonstrators. The jury heard repeated testimony about unprovoked police violence and the extensive injuries among the demonstrators. Well-known writers and performers, including Allen Ginsberg, William Styron, Dick Gregory, Norman Mailer, Arlo Guthrie, and Judy Collins, testified to the peaceful intent of the defendants. The judge denied the request to subpoena President Johnson. Mayor Daley appeared as a defense witness but said little as the judge upheld the government’s objection to most of the defense questions.

      Abbie Hoffman and Rennie Davis were the only defendants to testify. Abbie Hoffman described himself as a resident of the Woodstock Nation and an orphan of America, and he offered a lengthy narrative of his involvement in politics and the origins of the Yippie movement. Davis recounted his role in the organization of the demonstrations and his encounters with the police during the convention. On cross-examination, the government attorneys attempted to establish that use of the words “revolution” and “battle” constituted incitements to riot, but the exchanges with the defendants made clear how difficult it was to connect demonstrators’ rhetoric with the violence in Chicago.

      Procedural disputes

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      Much of the trial was consumed by arguments over procedure. Even before the trial started, Judge Hoffman granted only thirty days for pretrial motions rather than the six months requested by the defense. The judge denied the defense attorneys’ access to government evidence obtained without a warrant and barred the defense from submitting the Lake Villa document in which Hayden and Davis set out their nonviolent strategy. Judge Hoffman prohibited former Attorney General Ramsey Clark from testifying about his opposition to prosecution of demonstrators, and Hoffman sharply limited the defense lawyers’ ability to question Mayor Daley. Frequently the trial was interrupted by arguments over seemingly petty questions: Could the defendants distribute birthday cake in the courtroom? Could the defendants use the public restrooms, or should they be limited to the facilities in the holding rooms? Could the musician witnesses sing the songs they performed at demonstrations, or was the judge correct in insisting that they recite lyrics?

      Court theater

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      For the public that followed the trial in the daily media, the substantive arguments and procedural questions were overshadowed by the intentionally subversive behavior of the defendants and the high-handed dramatics of the judge. Jerry Rubin pleaded not guilty with a raised fist. When introduced to the jury, Abbie Hoffman blew them a kiss (and Judge Hoffman ordered them to “disregard that kiss”). The defendants often refused to rise when so instructed. On the day of the Moratorium to End the War in Vietnam, the defendants draped a Viet Cong flag over the defense table. Throughout the trial various defendants called out obscenities and labeled the judge and prosecutors liars or Gestapo officers. In the most theatrical display of contempt for

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