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Show i 1 p r 1 n Jjhfh- )' trji. Professor Edwin B. Firmage speaking during panel discussion on the Chicago Seven Trial Friday at the University College of Law. Forum discusses trial Chicago seven trial a disaster, panel concludes rioting also. "But I think there are other ways of protesting, than bank burning (referring to the recent bank that burned to the ground in Santa Barbara)," he said. "The tragedy of the convention and the trial, Is the truthfulness of which Jerry Rubin spoke after Judge Hoffman handed down the sentences. He said, 'Julius, you're the greatest ylppie In the world and you've hurt the judicial system more than any of us could do.' " Professor Boyce responded to a question about the trial by saying that defense attorney Kunstler was "trying a public issue and not defending de-fending his client." This he added was much In the manner In which Melvin Belli handled the Jack Ruby case. "Defendants are prejudiced by their own lawyers." Prof. Mazor says it Is our obligation to be ready to act on a problem, prob-lem, and we should be ready to appraise the events of this trial. "But we should look at events In a larger perspective of history," he said. "Can we say flatly that it was wrong for the defendants, the attorneys and the judge to act the way they did? This Is the real question we have to answer." PHILIP M. HOWARD, JR. Staff Writer "The trial of the Chicago Seven was the most important political trial in the history of this country. And it was an unmitigated disaster, an event that will increase our polarity." These observations were made by Lionel H. Frankel, a professor at the University's College of Law, during a panel discussion Friday. The event, sponsored by the Utah Law Forum, was entitled "A Post Mortem of the Trial of the Chicago Seven." Besides Prof. Frankel, panel members included College of Law professors Ronald Boyce, William Lockhart, Edwin B. Firmage, Lester Mazor and Dr. J. D. Williams, professor of Political Science at the University. . . ,. . The law which felled the Chicago Seven was a felony statute that gives a five-year prison penalty. Roughly this statute says that it is illegal to cross state lines with the intention of inciting riot or to use interstate facilities with the intention of encouraging violence. Professor Frankel says this law was Strom Thurmond's tribute to Martin Luther King as part of the Civil Rights Amendment. "Thurmond tacked it on," he added. "This was a show trial," he said. "The defendants were symbols of disorder and the outcome was the opposite of what those trying wanted." Saw it Coming Professor Lockhart says the trial had been coming since the summers sum-mers of 1965 and 1966 when we had violence in the ghettos and noting. So this trial was not, "hurriedly inacted," he added. "Tne House proposed and passed the Anti-Violence Act. It was reasoned that the riots were the product of interstate Rap Browns and Stokeley Carmichaels who went around the country stirring up lemBuf It make a judgment on this trial because I would like to read in depth about the law, the decision, the judge and the actor- neyBesMlS:dwhat is an intention to incite a riot? You have to go into one's mind, and every idea is an incitement." Police Guilty Prof Firmage was in Chicago at the Democratic Convention and agrees with the Walker Report which said the police were guilty of |
