(3 of 5)
Hoffman then sentenced each of the five convicted under the antiriot law to maximum jail terms of five years and imposed on each a $5,000 fine, half the allowable maximum. The jail terms are to run concurrently with the contempt sentences, so that none will have to serve more than five years in all—even if appeals fail and no paroles are granted. But Hoffman added an unusual zinger. The five will have to pay portions of the costs of their own prosecution.* The total costs could run as high as $50,000. They will stay in jail, said the judge, until both the fines and the costs are paid. He also refused to let the five out on bond pending appeal, calling them "dangerous men." The lawyers, however, were allowed their freedom to begin the appeal.
Endless Provocations. The trial thus ended with the same total hostility and mutual incomprehension that stained it from the start, and it left basic legal questions unresolved (see box, page 10). Both sides confirmed each other's prejudices. If the defendants and their lawyers seemed determined to provoke Judge Hoffman and convert the courtroom into an arena for political confrontation, the prosecution and the bench often came across as heavyhanded, harsh enforcers of questionable statutes.
The defendants' provocations were ingenious and seemingly endless. They delivered songs and poems from the witness stand; two of the accused showed up wearing what looked like judges' robes. They irked Hoffman by calling him "Julie." Often their words and actions were vicious. While Assistant Prosecutor Richard Schultz was examining one witness, he claims, "Rennie Davis moved over and kept whispering things like 'You dirty fascist Jew!' "
For his part, Judge Hoffman issued a series of astonishing rulings. He jailed two lawyers for failing to appear in court, even though they had only helped to prepare the defense. He barred such potentially important defense witnesses as former Attorney General Ramsey Clark and Civil Rights Leader Ralph Abernathy. Before the jury, he praised Chief Prosecutor Thomas Aquinas Foran and put down Defense Attorney Weinglass by consistently mispronouncing his name.
Observed Weinglass: "Where you had a prosecutor who was honestly and sincerely convinced that these men were evil and were out to overthrow the Government, and you had the Seven also honestly and sincerely convinced that the Government which was prosecuting them is fascistic—given those factors, you could not have an orderly proceeding." Attorney Kunstler argued: "It's against the law to kill—yet people kill all the time to protect their families and the law allows it. What's to happen in a courtroom when the judge commits an injustice?" The regular appellate process, as he sees it, is no longer adequate to judge the judges. He explained: "I never was this way before. I re-evaluated the role of the lawyer in a political case, and concluded that he has to develop a certain aggressiveness even though it may run counter to the rules the system has devised."