Nation: Man in the Plastic Booth

When Adolf Eichmann was tried in Jerusalem nine years ago, he sat inside a bulletproof glass booth. The idea was to protect him from a possible assassin in the courtroom—and it inspired Actor Robert Shaw to write a successful play called The Man in the Glass Booth. Now American jurists are considering a similar booth, made of plastic. Here, however, the idea is to protect the court from the defendant.

In both the Chicago Seven trial (see THE LAW) and a hearing in Manhattan involving 13 Black Panthers, defendants who regard the proceedings as "a farce" have leaped up from the defense...