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Chicago Seven
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The Chicago Seven (also Conspiracy Seven, originally Eight) were seven defendants—Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, David Dellinger, Tom Hayden, Rennie Davis, John Froines, and Lee Weiner—charged with conspiracy, inciting to riot, and other charges related to protests that took place in Chicago, Illinois on the occasion of the 1968 Democratic National Convention. Bobby Seale, the eighth man charged, had his trial severed during the proceedings, lowering the number from eight to seven.
1968 Democratic National Convention, held in late August – convened to select the party's candidates for the November 1968 Presidential election – was the scene of massive demonstrations protesting the Vietnam War, which was at its height.
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The Chicago Seven (also Conspiracy Seven, originally Eight) were seven defendants—Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, David Dellinger, Tom Hayden, Rennie Davis, John Froines, and Lee Weiner—charged with conspiracy, inciting to riot, and other charges related to protests that took place in Chicago, Illinois on the occasion of the 1968 Democratic National Convention. Bobby Seale, the eighth man charged, had his trial severed during the proceedings, lowering the number from eight to seven.
Background
The 1968 Democratic National Convention, held in late August – convened to select the party's candidates for the November 1968 Presidential election – was the scene of massive demonstrations protesting the Vietnam War, which was at its height. Thousands of people showed up with signs and banners, music, dancing and poetry. A pig, "Pigasus the Immortal", was brought into the city to be "nominated" for President. Initially, there was a carnival atmosphere. Police and national guard forces were edgy and used tear gas, struck people with batons, and made arrests. These clashes between protesters and the police continued to escalate over the next few days. In the aftermath of what was later characterized as a "police riot" by the U.S. National Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence, a grand jury indicted eight demonstrators and eight police officers.
Trial
The original eight protester/defendants, indicted by the grand jury on March 20, 1969, were Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, David Dellinger, Tom Hayden, Rennie Davis, John Froines, Lee Weiner, and Bobby Seale. The defense attorneys were William Kunstler and Leonard Weinglass of the Center for Constitutional Rights. The judge was Julius Hoffman. The prosecutors were Richard Schultz and Tom Foran. The trial began on September 24 1969, and on October 9 the United States National Guard was called in for crowd control as demonstrations grew outside the courtroom.
Early in the course of the trial, Black Panther Party activist Bobby Seale hurled bitter attacks at Judge Hoffman in court, calling him a "fascist dog," a "pig," and a "racist," among other things. Seale had wanted the trial postponed so that his own attorney, Charles Garry, could represent him (as Garry was about to undergo gallbladder surgery); the judge denied the postponement, and refused to allow Seale to represent himself, leading to Seale's verbal onslaught. When Seale refused to be silenced, the judge ordered Seale bound and gagged in the courtroom, citing a precedent from the case of Illinois v. Allen. (This was alluded to in Graham Nash's song, "Chicago", which opened with: "So your brother's bound and gagged, and they've chained him to a chair"). Ultimately Judge Hoffman severed Seale from the case, sentencing him to four years in prison for contempt, one of the longest sentences ever handed down for that offense in American history at that time.
The Chicago Eight then became the Chicago Seven, where the defendants, particularly Yippies Hoffman and Rubin, mocked courtroom decorum as the widely publicized trial itself became a focal point for a growing legion of protesters. One day, defendants Hoffman and Rubin appeared in court dressed in judicial robes. Abbie Hoffman blew kisses at the jury. Judge Hoffman became the favorite courtroom target of the defendants, who frequently would insult the judge to his face. Abbie Hoffman (no relation) told Judge Hoffman "you are a 'shande fur de Goyim' [disgrace in front of the gentiles]. You would have served Hitler better." He later added that "your idea of justice is the only obscenity in the room." Both Davis and Rubin told the Judge "this court is bullshit."
The trial extended for months, with many celebrated figures from the American left and counterculture called to testify (including folk singers Phil Ochs, Judy Collins and Arlo Guthrie, writer Norman Mailer, LSD advocate Timothy Leary and Reverend Jesse Jackson).
Results
On February 18, 1970, all seven defendants were found not guilty of conspiracy. Two (Froines and Weiner) were acquitted completely, while the remaining five were convicted of crossing state lines with the intent to incite a riot, a crime instituted by the anti-riot provisions of the Civil Rights Act of 1968. On February 20, they were each fined $5,000 and sentenced to five years in prison. At sentencing, Abbie Hoffman recommended that the judge try LSD, offering to set him up with a dealer he knew in Florida.
On November 21, 1972, all of the convictions were reversed by the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit on the basis that the judge was biased in his refusal to permit defense attorneys to screen prospective jurors for cultural and racial bias (Case citation 472 F.2d 340). The Justice Department decided not to retry the case. During the trial, all the defendants and both defense attorneys had been cited for contempt and sentenced to jail, but all of those convictions were also overturned. The contempt charges were retried before a different judge, who found Dellinger, Rubin, Hoffman, and Kunstler guilty of some of the charges, but opted not to sentence the defendants to jail or fines.
Of the eight police officers indicted in the matter, seven were acquitted, and charges against the eighth were dismissed.
Dramatic presentations
French left-wing political filmmakers Jean-Luc Godard and Jean-Pierre Gorin (under the collective Dziga Vertov Group) made a film depicting the trials in 1970 called Vladimir et Rosa. In it, Judge Hoffman becomes "Judge Himmler" and the accused become microcosms of French revolutionary society. Lenin and Karl Rosa also appear, played by Godard and Gorin respectively.
Mixing fact and fiction, Haskell Wexler's 1969 film "Medium Cool", centers around the relationship between a cameraman and young widow as they find themselves amid the turmoil and violence during the "long hot summer" of Chicago. Wexler mixed both staged scenes with actual footage he shot from the demonstrations, his characters interacting with the protesters seamlessly. Indeed, at one point, the viewer can hear another filmmaker telling Wexler he is getting too close to the action. The real footage of the demonstrations is vividly and naturalistically portrayed, and "Medium Cool" is a worthy piece of film to get a very real sense of what it must have been like to be on the front line at the 1968 national Democratic convention.
In the 1971 Peter Watkins film Punishment Park, members of the counter-culture are put on trial for similar "crimes". Like Bobby Seale, one of the African-American defendants is bound and gagged.
In 1987, HBO aired Conspiracy: The Trial of the Chicago 8, a docudrama which re-enacted the trial using the transcript as the primary source for the script. William Kunstler, Leonard Weinglass, and all eight of the original defendants participated in the project, and provided commentary throughout the film. It was awarded the 1988 CableACE Award for Best Dramatic Special.
In 1993, British playwright John Goodchild adapted the original trial transcripts for a radio play produced by L.A. Theatre Works, The Chicago Conspiracy Trial. Its cast included David Schwimmer (Abbie Hoffman), Tom Amandes (Richard Schultz), George Murdock (Judge Julius Hoffman), and Mike Nussbaum (William Kunstler). The play received a New York Festivals award in 1993.
In the 2007 film Chicago 10, Oscar-nominated director Brett Morgen retraces the trial with archival footage, animation, and music used to look back at the eight anti-war protesters who were put on trial following the 1968 Democratic National Convention.
Writer Aaron Sorkin wrote a script entitled The Trial of the Chicago 7, based on the trials of the protesters at the 1968 Democratic convention. Producers Steven Spielberg, Walter F. Parkes, and Laurie MacDonald collaborated on the development of Sorkin's script, with Spielberg intending to direct the film. In July 2007, Sorkin finalized a deal with DreamWorks to write The Trial of the Chicago 7 as one of three contracted films. Sorkin said the film would start shooting by the end of March 2008, "if the Writers' Guild Strike gets settled in time". Sacha Baron Cohen has been cast as Abbie Hoffman, while Spielberg has approached Will Smith for a part, which Smith is "confident" he'll find time in his schedule to portray. The WGA strike, which lasted for 100 days, meant Spielberg was unable to begin filming in April, and he has suspended the project because of a possible Screen Actors Guild strike in June. Sorkin will continue to rewrite the script for Spielberg, and the director intends to mostly cast unknowns to keep the budget down. In August, Production Weekly reported Paul Greengrass had taken over the project but that has fallen through. Ben Stiller is currently in talks to direct.
A feature film made at the time of the trial, based on the trial transcript and distributed by New Line, , by Cannes-winning director Kerry Feltham, was released in Jan 2008 on DVD. The film won the Berlin Film Festival jury prize, as well as positive reviews from the New York Times and Newsweek.
See also
External links
- at imdb.com Chicago 10 (2007) documentary
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