1969-1970 жылдарғы Чикаго жеттігінің сот процесі

Defendants in 1969 1970 trial

The Chicago Seven, originally the Chicago Eight and also known as the Conspiracy Eight or Conspiracy Seven, were seven defendants – Rennie Davis, David Dellinger, John Froines, Tom Hayden, Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, and Lee Weiner – charged by the United States Department of Justice with conspiracy, crossing state lines with intent to incite a riot, and other charges related to anti Vietnam War and 1960s counterculture protests in Chicago, Illinois during the 1968 Democratic National Convention. The Chicago Eight became the Chicago Seven after the case against codefendant Bobby Seale was declared a mistrial. All of the defendants were charged with and acquitted of conspiracy; Davis, Dellinger, Hayden, Hoffman, and Rubin were charged with and convicted of crossing state lines with intent to incite a riot; Froines and Weiner were charged with teaching demonstrators how to construct incendiary devices and acquitted of those charges. All of the convictions were later reversed on appeal, and the government declined to retry the case. While the jury deliberated, Judge Julius Hoffman convicted the defendants and their attorneys of contempt of court and sentenced them to jail sentences ranging from less than three months to more than four years. The contempt convictions were also appealed, and some were retried before a different judge. Since the beginning of the trial in 1969, the defendants and their attorneys have been depicted in a variety of art forms, including film, music, and theater.

In the fall of 1967, David Dellinger was the director of the National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam (the Mobe), and planning began during Mobe meetings for an anti war demonstration at the 1968 Democratic National Convention. A similar plan was created by SDS Vice President Vernon T. Grizzard titled "Summer 1968: Possibilities for New Local Organizing". In early 1968, the Tet Offensive against American forces in Vietnam started, and in February, Walter Cronkite said the war was "lost." In March, Johnson ended his campaign for the nomination. as a response to what they described as the Democratic "Convention of Death". In January, the Yippies had issued a statement that included: "Join us in Chicago in August for an international festival of youth music and theater  Come all you rebels, youth spirits, rock minstrels, truth seekers, peacock freaks, poets, barricade jumpers, dancers, lovers and artists  We are there! There are 500,000 of us dancing in the streets, throbbing with amplifiers and harmony. We are making love in the parks  " A week before the start of the convention, Mobe organizers sued in federal court to obtain permits to use the parks, but were denied on August 23. On Saturday, August 24, Lincoln Park was cleared almost without incident, with Allen Ginsberg leading many protesters out of the park before the 11 p. m. curfew. The 4,865 city firefighters were ordered to work extra shifts beginning on the Sunday before the convention, and the Chicago Police Department placed 1,500 uniformed officers outside the International Amphitheatre, where the Democratic convention was held, including snipers. Police pushed protesters through plate glass windows, then pursued them inside and beat them as they sprawled on the broken glass.

Investigations were conducted by the City of Chicago, the U. S. Department of Justice, the House Committee on Un American Activities (HUAC), and the National Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence. Bruce Ragsdale writes that the HUAC chair, Richard Ichord, "suspected communist involvement in the demonstrations", but the hearings "devolved into a bizarre preview of the conspiracy trial when a shirtless, barefooted Jerry Rubin burst into the hearing room with a bandolier of bullets and a toy gun." while trying to attend a HUAC meeting after being subpoenaed to appear. Tom Hayden also testified during the hearings. On September 4, 1968, Milton Eisenhower, chair of the National Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence, announced the commission would investigate and report its findings to President Lyndon Johnson. Supervised by Daniel Walker, more than 200 investigators conducted interviews of more than 1,400 witnesses and reviewed FBI reports and film. Seven police officers were charged with assault and one police officer was charged with perjury. The charges against the demonstrators were the first prosecutions under the anti riot provisions of Title X of the Civil Rights Act of 1968.

The original eight defendants were Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, David Dellinger, Tom Hayden, Rennie Davis, John Froines, Lee Weiner, and Bobby Seale. The defense attorneys were William Kunstler, Leonard Weinglass of the Center for Constitutional Rights, as well as Michael Kennedy, Michael Tigar, Charles Garry, Gerald Lefcourt, and Dennis Roberts. The presiding judge was Julius Hoffman (no relation to Abbie), and the prosecutors were Richard Schultz and Tom Foran.

The trial began on September 24, 1969. The government called 53 witnesses, including undercover police officer Robert Pierson, who worked as a bodyguard for Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin, and testified that on August 26, 1968, he heard Abbie Hoffman say "If they push us out of the park tonight, we're going to break windows", and about statements made by Rubin, Seale, and Davis. Police officer William Frapolly testified about his undercover work, which included joining Students for a Democratic Society and the National Mobilization Committee.

Seale was initially represented by Charles Garry, who appeared at the April 9 arraignment. Seale protested the judge's actions, arguing that they were not only illegal, but also racist, telling the court on September 26, "If I am consistently denied this right of legal defense counsel of my choice, who is effective, by the judge of this court, then I can only see the judge as a blatant racist of the United States court." and Seale replied, "If a witness is on the stand and testifies against me and I stand up and speak out in behalf of my right to have my lawyer and to defend myself and you deny me that, I have a right to make those requests. I have a right to make those demands on my constitutional rights. I have a constitutional right to speak, and if you try to suppress my constitutional right to speak out in behalf of my constitutional rights, then I can only see you as a bigot, a racist, and a fascist, and I have said before and clearly indicated on the record." On three days, struggling to get free, and at times managing to loudly insist on his right to defend himself.

During the proceedings, all of the defendants and nearly all of their attorneys were cited for contempt of court by Judge Hoffman.

Attorneys Michael Kennedy, Dennis Roberts, Michael Tigar, and Gerald Lefcourt assisted the defense with pretrial motions. Before the trial began, Judge Hoffman held them all in contempt after they attempted to withdraw from the case, issued bench warrants for their arrest, and had Tigar and Lefcourt jailed.

In Haskell Wexler's 1969 film Medium Cool, Vincent Canby of The New York Times writes that Wexler "uses some of the real events of [1968]  as backgrounds that are extensions of the fictional characters." In 1970, the BBC produced The Chicago Conspiracy Trial, with Ronny Cox as Jerry Rubin, Cliff Gorman as Abbie Hoffman, and Al Freeman Jr. as Bobby Seale; the re creation of the trial was aired in the US by PBS in July 1975. In 1970, Jean Luc Godard and Jean Pierre Gorin, of the Dziga Vertov Group, made a parody film of the Chicago 8 trial called Vladimir et Rosa. In the 1971 Peter Watkins film Punishment Park, fictional members of the counterculture are put on trial for similar "crimes". In the 1971 film Bananas, Woody Allen makes a reference to the binding and gagging of Bobby Seale during the Chicago 8 trial. Allen's character, Fielding Melish, is on trial and defending himself. The judge orders Melish bound and gagged. While bound and gagged, he cross examines a prosecution witness. The 1971 Kerry Feltham film The Great Chicago Conspiracy Circus was based on the trial transcript and Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland. The 1987 Jeremy Kagan made for HBO movie Conspiracy: The Trial of the Chicago 8 was adapted from the Ron Sossi and Frank Condon play The Chicago Conspiracy Trial, is based on the courtroom transcripts, and includes brief interviews with participants in the trial. In the 2007 Brett Morgen film Chicago 10, archival footage, including Chicago in August 1968, is mixed with animated scenes based on the trial transcript. The 2010 documentary Phil Ochs: There but for Fortune features interviews with a variety of Ochs' associates, including Tom Hayden, Jerry Rubin, and Abbie Hoffman. Stephen Holden of The New York Times writes, "Ochs's involvement with the civil rights and antiwar movements and his presence at the 1968 Democratic National Convention make "There but for Fortune" not only a biography but also a running history of the period's left wing activism, replete with film clips of that decade's tragic events". The 2012 Pinchas Perry film The Chicago 8 includes dialogue from some of the trial transcripts.

Phil Ochs released his 1969 album Rehearsals for Retirement with an image of his own tombstone on the cover, inscribed: "Born: El Paso, Texas 1940" and "Died: Chicago, Illinois 1968", which according to Ryan Smith of Chicago Reader, is an "obvious reference" to Ochs' role in the 1968 Democratic National Convention protests; the album also includes the song "William Butler Yeats Visits Lincoln Park", which describes Chicago during the convention. Ochs brought his guitar and was prepared to sing "I Ain't Marching Anymore" during his testimony at the trial of the Chicago Seven, but was denied the opportunity by the judge. The 1971 song "Chicago" by Graham Nash, on Nash's solo debut album, Songs for Beginners was inspired by the anti Vietnam protests at the 1968 Democratic National Convention and the trial of the Chicago Eight, and the song opens with a reference to Bobby Seale, who was gagged and chained in the courtroom. Researcher Justin Brummer, founding editor of the Vietnam War Song Project has catalogued over 25 songs that reference the Chicago Seven/Eight and/or the demonstrations during the 1968 Democratic National Convention, including "Telling It Straight in '68" by country artist Jim Hartley, "Where Were You in Chicago" by Phil Ochs, "Circus '68 '69" (1970) by Charlie Haden, "Christmas in My Soul" (1970) by Laura Nyro, "Free Bobby Now" (1970) by Black Panther group The Lumpen (about Bobby Seale), "Chicago's 7" by Walt Wilder, "Chicago 7" by Warren Farren, "Chicago Seven" (1971) by blues artist Memphis Slim, and "The Chicago Conspiracy" (1972) by David Peel.

The 1970 Off Broadway play The Chicago 70 was an improvised drama by the Toronto Workshop Company based on the Chicago Seven trial transcripts and Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland. In 1972, playwright and screenwriter David Petersen's play Little Orphan Abbie based on the transcript of the trial, opened in Seattle, directed by Jody Briggs and starring Glenn Mazen. It was slated for production in New York by director Joe Papp, but had to be postponed and finally cancelled due to extended runs of other plays. It was later produced in Los Angeles, first on stage at the Burbage Theater, directed by Ron Hunter. It was later shot for television by Telemedia Productions, directed by Dick Studebaker. The television version used stock footage of the events in the parks and on the streets of Chicago during the riots. In 1979, The Chicago Conspiracy Trial by Ron Sossi and Frank Condon was staged by the Odyssey Theater Ensemble and is based on the trial transcripts. The 15th anniversary production by the Odyssey Theater Ensemble featured Allan Miller (William Kunstler), Albie Selznick (Leonard Weinglass), Paul Provenza (Abbie Hoffman) and George Murdock (Judge Hoffman). The 1993 John Goodchild play The Chicago Conspiracy Trial is based on the trial transcripts and produced by L. A. Theatre Works, the BBC and WFMT. The cast included David Schwimmer (Abbie Hoffman), Tom Amandes (Richard Schultz), George Murdock (Judge Julius Hoffman), and Mike Nussbaum (William Kunstler).