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The conspiracy trial
Worn and torn dust jacket has a faded spine and is now in a protective sleeve, some marking to tanned page edges. Shipped from the U.K. All orders received before 3pm sent that weekday.
- GenresHistoryNonfiction
616 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1970
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
August 5, 2022
This book is a painstakingly compiled report of the Chicago Conspiracy Trial. This is one of the most challenging books that I have ever read because it truly overwhelms with the sheer volume of the recorded trial proceedings.
The author introduces the story well. Eight individuals, Bobby Seale, David Dellinger, Tom Hayden, Rennie Davis, Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, John Froines, and Lee Weiner, all in varying degrees leaders in what has been called the “New Left," were indicted, under a recently enacted federal statute, for conspiring to cross state lines with an intent to incite a riot and also for engaging in the same conduct as individuals. The riot in question was the nationally and internationally renowned series of protests that took place in Chicago in August 1968, at the time of the Democratic National Convention.
The trial of the eight alleged conspirators began in the federal district court in Chicago before Judge Julius Hoffman on September 26, 1969 and lasted for five months, concluding on February 18, 1970. It received publicity that was exceptional both in intensity and length and became a national event and part of the popular culture. After deliberating for over four days, the jury returned a complex and interesting verdict. It acquitted two defendants, Weiner and Froines, in full. It acquitted all seven defendants of the conspiracy – there were seven at the conclusion of the trial, Bobby Seale having been separated from the case in October by the order of the judge – and it convicted the remaining five defendants, Dellinger, Hayden, Davis, Rubin, and Hoffman on the individual counts of crossing state lines to incite a riot.
It is difficult for me to include all the aspects of the trial in one review, considering the wealth of materiel that the author provides. What stood out to me and what I found shocking was that, at the conclusion of the trial, Judge Hoffman, not to be confused with defendant Hoffman, called the defendants and their lawyers, whom he had repeatedly warned during the trial, before him one at a time and adjudged them in contempt, sentencing them to periods ranging from two-and-a-half months to over four years. This action was uncalled for and represented nothing but the judge's spite at the fact that seven young people who disagreed with the policy that the American government was pursuing in Vietnam and elsewhere had not been punished for expressing their beliefs. The contempt sentences outraged and fascinated the American public more than the trial itself did.
As the report demonstrates, the judge frequently engaged in trying to discredit the defendants and their legal team and utilized every cunning tactic at his disposal to undermine their case. These ranged from his refusal to permit an otherwise unoccupied defense lawyer to leave the courtroom to interview prospective witnesses to his insistence on Saturday sessions after the prosecution had rested. In addition, he saw to it that the jury never knew that former Attorney General Ramsey Clark had willingly come to Chicago to testify for the defendants, deliberately tainted the only youthful member of the jury by showing her a threatening letter supposedly signed by "The Black Panthers" which she would ordinarily have never seen, and prevented Dr. Ralph D. Abernathy from taking the stand solely and simply because he had, due to unsatisfactory plane connections from Atlanta, arrived in the courtroom eighteen minutes late. His treatment of defendant Bobby Seale completely overshadowed his other excesses, though. Although Seale consistently stressed the fact that, if he could not have Garry "in my service," he wanted to be his own lawyer, the judge was just as determined to prevent him from so doing. When Seale kept insisting on his constitutional rights, Hoffman removed him from the common trial and charged him with sixteen contempt sentences, for each one of which he had to serve three months. Reading about judges like Hoffman makes you lose faith in the legal system.
The most poignant instance of Hoffman's insensitivity that made it impossible for him to approach the defendants as human beings was his sentencing Tom Hayden for contempt. When Hayden reached the end of his pre-sentence remarks, he hesitated for a moment and then, his eyes brimming with unexpected tears, he said: "I was trying to think about what I regretted about punishment ... and that is I would like to have a child." A man with a heart would have ignored the remark and proceeded to impose sentence, but the judge, unmoved by the momentary revelation of the soul of another man, could not refrain from observing that "there is where the Federal System can do you no good."
The author fits this situation into the big picture by pointing out that Hoffman's behavior and decisions during the Chicago Conspiracy Trial illustrate what had happened to America by the end of the 1960s. Beginning with Hoffman's sabotage, down to the unprecedented claim by the Attorney General of the United States that he had the unquestioned right to wiretap the defendants if he thought national security required it, down to the seemingly endless parade of paid FBI informers, one of whom worked with full press credentials for a CBS-TV affiliate, and government agents who testified without embarrassment to their having infiltrated the demonstrators' ranks and urged the use of violent tactics, the proceedings revealed a hidden face of the American government. This face led one juror to exclaim at the trial's conclusion: "For the first time in my life I was afraid of my government."
THE CONSPIRACY TRIAL is a remarkable record of the Chicago Conspiracy Trial that is impossible to summarize in a review. Only by reading it himself or herself can the reader know and understand everything that happened during the trial that became a legend in American law and politics. This book is simultaneously irritating, powerful, alarming, unnerving, and fascinating, albeit difficult to wade through in terms of style and amount of evidence. I highly recommend it for those interested and determined enough to read it to the end. It will be a rewarding experience.
The author introduces the story well. Eight individuals, Bobby Seale, David Dellinger, Tom Hayden, Rennie Davis, Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, John Froines, and Lee Weiner, all in varying degrees leaders in what has been called the “New Left," were indicted, under a recently enacted federal statute, for conspiring to cross state lines with an intent to incite a riot and also for engaging in the same conduct as individuals. The riot in question was the nationally and internationally renowned series of protests that took place in Chicago in August 1968, at the time of the Democratic National Convention.
The trial of the eight alleged conspirators began in the federal district court in Chicago before Judge Julius Hoffman on September 26, 1969 and lasted for five months, concluding on February 18, 1970. It received publicity that was exceptional both in intensity and length and became a national event and part of the popular culture. After deliberating for over four days, the jury returned a complex and interesting verdict. It acquitted two defendants, Weiner and Froines, in full. It acquitted all seven defendants of the conspiracy – there were seven at the conclusion of the trial, Bobby Seale having been separated from the case in October by the order of the judge – and it convicted the remaining five defendants, Dellinger, Hayden, Davis, Rubin, and Hoffman on the individual counts of crossing state lines to incite a riot.
It is difficult for me to include all the aspects of the trial in one review, considering the wealth of materiel that the author provides. What stood out to me and what I found shocking was that, at the conclusion of the trial, Judge Hoffman, not to be confused with defendant Hoffman, called the defendants and their lawyers, whom he had repeatedly warned during the trial, before him one at a time and adjudged them in contempt, sentencing them to periods ranging from two-and-a-half months to over four years. This action was uncalled for and represented nothing but the judge's spite at the fact that seven young people who disagreed with the policy that the American government was pursuing in Vietnam and elsewhere had not been punished for expressing their beliefs. The contempt sentences outraged and fascinated the American public more than the trial itself did.
As the report demonstrates, the judge frequently engaged in trying to discredit the defendants and their legal team and utilized every cunning tactic at his disposal to undermine their case. These ranged from his refusal to permit an otherwise unoccupied defense lawyer to leave the courtroom to interview prospective witnesses to his insistence on Saturday sessions after the prosecution had rested. In addition, he saw to it that the jury never knew that former Attorney General Ramsey Clark had willingly come to Chicago to testify for the defendants, deliberately tainted the only youthful member of the jury by showing her a threatening letter supposedly signed by "The Black Panthers" which she would ordinarily have never seen, and prevented Dr. Ralph D. Abernathy from taking the stand solely and simply because he had, due to unsatisfactory plane connections from Atlanta, arrived in the courtroom eighteen minutes late. His treatment of defendant Bobby Seale completely overshadowed his other excesses, though. Although Seale consistently stressed the fact that, if he could not have Garry "in my service," he wanted to be his own lawyer, the judge was just as determined to prevent him from so doing. When Seale kept insisting on his constitutional rights, Hoffman removed him from the common trial and charged him with sixteen contempt sentences, for each one of which he had to serve three months. Reading about judges like Hoffman makes you lose faith in the legal system.
The most poignant instance of Hoffman's insensitivity that made it impossible for him to approach the defendants as human beings was his sentencing Tom Hayden for contempt. When Hayden reached the end of his pre-sentence remarks, he hesitated for a moment and then, his eyes brimming with unexpected tears, he said: "I was trying to think about what I regretted about punishment ... and that is I would like to have a child." A man with a heart would have ignored the remark and proceeded to impose sentence, but the judge, unmoved by the momentary revelation of the soul of another man, could not refrain from observing that "there is where the Federal System can do you no good."
The author fits this situation into the big picture by pointing out that Hoffman's behavior and decisions during the Chicago Conspiracy Trial illustrate what had happened to America by the end of the 1960s. Beginning with Hoffman's sabotage, down to the unprecedented claim by the Attorney General of the United States that he had the unquestioned right to wiretap the defendants if he thought national security required it, down to the seemingly endless parade of paid FBI informers, one of whom worked with full press credentials for a CBS-TV affiliate, and government agents who testified without embarrassment to their having infiltrated the demonstrators' ranks and urged the use of violent tactics, the proceedings revealed a hidden face of the American government. This face led one juror to exclaim at the trial's conclusion: "For the first time in my life I was afraid of my government."
THE CONSPIRACY TRIAL is a remarkable record of the Chicago Conspiracy Trial that is impossible to summarize in a review. Only by reading it himself or herself can the reader know and understand everything that happened during the trial that became a legend in American law and politics. This book is simultaneously irritating, powerful, alarming, unnerving, and fascinating, albeit difficult to wade through in terms of style and amount of evidence. I highly recommend it for those interested and determined enough to read it to the end. It will be a rewarding experience.
April 11, 2021
fantastic record of the trial. the movie sparked my interest, so i read a short book about it and watched several documentaries. however nothing even comes close to the detail in this. the entire trial was so infuriating and at parts hard to handle, the injustice the defendants had to face in court especially from the judge was absolutely insane. this whole case has inspired me not only to become a lawyer but to always fight for what is right and against people and institutions that have allowed the power they hold to lead them to believe they are untouchable.
January 23, 2011
The Chicago Conspiracy Trial concerned supposed illegal acts committed by the eight defendants (seven after Bobby Seale was removed) during the 1968 Democratic National Convention. The trial ran for quite some time and, other than going to demonstrations in front of the Federal Building while in town from college, I became personally acquainted with two (John Froines and Lee Weiner) of the lesser known and least involved defendants when they would come to visit Grinnell College to build support. As it happened, charges, including very many contempt of court charges, were not upheld.
The transcripts of the trial as edited herein actually make for interesting reading, very many cultural and political luminaries of the period having given testimony.
The transcripts of the trial as edited herein actually make for interesting reading, very many cultural and political luminaries of the period having given testimony.
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April 23, 2009Bernadette Devlin was once asked if she thought the average American knew what was going on in Northern Ireland. "No," she said. "The average American doesn't know what's going on in America."
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews