Chicago 7

Chicago 7

Originally commencement every bit the Chicago 8, this grouping of political dissidents was charged with conspiracy, inward item for allegedly crossing state lines with “the intent to incite, organize, promote, encourage, participate in, as well as comport on a riot as well as to commit acts of violence inward furtherance of a riot...” during the 1968 Democratic National Convention (DNC) inward Chicago, Illinois.

Charged nether a as well as thence novel federal antiriot law, the so-called H. Rap Brown Act, the 8 defendants went on trial 24 September 1969 inward what became i of the nearly celebrated courtroom cases of the Vietnam era.

The composition of the grouping suggested the federal regime was attempting to position the entire “Movement” on trial, every bit those charged were a virtual who’s who of U.S. radicalism: Yippie leaders Abbie Hoffman as well as Jerry Rubin; Tom Hayden of the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS); the cochairs of the National Mobilization to End the War—Rennie Davis as well as David Dellinger (who was also the pacifist editor of Liberation magazine); Black Panther Party Chairman Bobby Seale; as well as academic activists John Froines as well as Lee Weiner.


Seale, who had played a relatively modest purpose inward the events during the DNC as well as was alone cited for i violation inward the indictment (a unmarried oral communication made inward Chicago’s Lincoln Park), eventually saw his example severed from the other defendants—but non earlier existence physically restrained inward the courtroom, at the guild of Judge Julius Hoffman.

While Seale’s participation inward the proceedings was brief, the picture of the Black Panther leader, bound, gagged, as well as shackled inward leg irons became i of the nearly enduring symbols of the trial.

Aside from the spectacle of Seale’s bondage, the trial proceedings were a raucous affair, with the defendants trading insults with the approximate as well as the prosecutors, creating outlandish disturbances, as well as attempting to concentrate on the political issues of import to the Movement, namely the Vietnam War, racism, as well as regime repression, instead of pertinent legal matters.

Yippies Abbie Hoffman as well as Jerry Rubin provided the bulk of the trial’s fireworks with Abbie refusing to move known past times “Hoffman” (claiming the approximate had disgraced the name), blowing kisses to the jurors, using outrageous props, oft laughing out loud, making disruptive speeches, dancing some the courtroom, and, along with Jerry Rubin, fifty-fifty dressing inward judicial robes inward mockery of the court.

During the five-month legal battle, the defendants succeeded inward forcing the courtroom to listen testimony from poet Allen Ginsberg, folksingers Arlo Guthrie, Phil Ochs, “Country Joe” McDonald, Pete Seeger, as well as Judy Collins, writer Norman Mailer, comedian Dick Gregory, as well as LSD-guru Timothy Leary alongside others.

Chicago mayor William Daley also took the stand upwardly to bear witness as well as fifty-fifty evinced a smiling when Abbie Hoffman suggested the ii of them could settle everything past times stepping exterior the courtroom. Courtroom surprises were non ever a termination of the defendants’ actions, however, every bit the prosecution succeeded inward shocking Jerry Rubin past times introducing his DNC bodyguard every bit an hush-hush informant as well as prosecution witness.


Yippie as well as editor of the tube paper the Realist, Paul Krassner, a defence forcefulness witness, succeeded inward angering members of the Chicago 7, the prosecution, as well as the courtroom past times testifying spell on an LSD trip.

At the conclusion of the trial, inward Feb 1970, the jury institute all of the defendants non guilty of charges of conspiracy, simply with the exception of John Froines as well as Lee Weiner they were institute guilty of intent to riot. Judge Hoffman also ruled that the defendants as well as their attorneys, William Kunstler as well as Leonard Weinglass, were guilty of a full of 175 counts of contempt.

Kunstler as well as Weinglass were sentenced to four- as well as two-year prison theatre damage respectively, spell their clients each received five-year sentences as well as $5,000 fines. In 1972, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals over-turned the criminal convictions of the Chicago 7 as well as all simply xiii of the contempt charges were eventually dismissed.

The appellate courtroom based its decisions on Judge Hoffman’s openly antagonistic mental attitude toward the defence forcefulness as well as his refusal to let for sufficient inquiry into jury biases. Further, the courtroom determined that Judge Hoffman as well as the prosecutors had noesis of the FBI’s electronic surveillance of the Chicago 7’s defence forcefulness attorneys, which it suggested would nearly probable convey allowed for reversal of the convictions upon appeal.