An Electric Circus

To anyone familiar with the decorous rituals of the courtroom and the unchallenged omniscience of the judge, the scene in New York's Criminal Courts Building last week was shocking and absurd. At one end of the dingy courtroom, silver-haired State Supreme Court Justice John M. Murtagh, 58, sat under the inscription "In God We Trust," sternly trying to keep order. Near by, Assistant District Attorney Joseph Phillips, a tough, hard-working prosecutor, doggedly tried to follow the guideposts of long-established court procedure.

On the other side of the courtroom, surrounded by a phalanx of blue-coated court guards, sat the defendants, 13 Black Panthers in coarse working clothes. Glowering, hooting, they yelled and swore, keeping up a desultory cacophony of epithets, calling the judge and Phillips "fascists," "pigs" and "racists." In the audience behind them, Panther supporters in Afro haircuts, shawls and dashikis joined in the sporadic bedlam, ridiculing Murtagh's determined calls for order. Shouted one defendant, Richard Moore: "This is nothing but an electric circus, a racist Babylon!" Twice fights broke out, and one woman was cited for contempt of court.

Modishly Attired. It was the first week of a pretrial hearing in the case of the Panthers charged with conspiring to bomb public places in New York and with attempted murder and attempted arson. The defendants were originally known as "the Panther 21," but some are being tried separately, others are already in jail on convictions for other crimes. Most have been in solitary confinement since their arrest April 2, unable to raise the bail of up to $100,000 set by Murtagh.

Neither side made any effort to conceal its disdain for the other. Murtagh, a stern former prosecutor, showed little patience with the six long-haired, modishly attired young lawyers with limited trial experience. He hurried their questions, curtly denied their motions, and dropped hints that he will hold the lawyers in contempt for their clients' outbursts.

The Panthers and their supporters showed even less respect for the court. "Unless we get justice," shouted Defendant Moore, "we're going to turn this raggedy, filthy pigpen inside out every day!"

And they did. The first day in court, Defendant Michael Tabor, 22, stood up, apparently to walk to the defense counsel's table. When two guards tried to restrain him, Tabor swung at a guard and missed, and a scuffle followed. The next day, a melee broke out after a white spectator, MaryAnn Weissman, 31, stood up and yelled at Murtagh: "Who judges your conduct?" When guards tried to eject her, a brawl broke out and swept into the corridor. Two defendants, two guards and one detective were injured. Richard Moore charged that he had had his "head dribbled on the floor like a basketball." Lonnie Epps, 18, a defendant free on bail, was rearrested trying to prevent Mrs. Weissman's ejection, and faces charges of assault and resisting arrest. Murtagh gave Mrs. Weissman a sentence of 30 days in jail.

No Address. Threats also punctuated the trial. "There will be blood all over this courtroom!" yelled someone in the audience. All who entered the courtroom were carefully searched, and detectives who testified refused to divulge their home addresses. Even the judge refused to reveal where he lived, telling a reporter: "You have seen what happened in the courtroom."

Though the jury has not yet been selected, the Panther trial already gives every indication of turning into a spectacle like the conspiracy trial of the Chicago Seven. The Panthers seek the overthrow of the system represented by the court and see their trial as political persecution by that system; apparently they intend to dramatize its "corruptness" by making a mockery of it. Yet these tactics are self-defeating. They only expose the Panthers to additional punishment for contempt of court and they may deprive them of sympathy that has been building up because of the unusually large bail in which they have been held (TIME, Feb. 9). Disruptions may be proper Panther ideology, but they are poor and dangerous tactics, both in a courtroom and in the larger scene of the national consciousness.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.