Chicago Mop-Up

Most of the names and faces in the Chicago federal courtroom were familiar. They evoked flashbacks heavy with history: the riots at the 1968 Democratic convention, the Chicago Seven trial with its flamboyant rhetoric and shouting matches, the sympathy demonstrations and trashing sprees across the country. But so much had changed since those days that it was difficult to call back the passion or the classic clash between the radical antiwar movement and the criminal-justice system. By the time three of the original defendants and one of their lawyers were found guilty last week of contempt of court during the first trial, the denouement had dwindled to a legal mop-up operation.

The deflation had a number of causes. Viet Nam and the protest it stimulated were no longer national obsessions. Few of the stars of the 1969-70 Chicago Seven trial still shine very brightly. Judge Julius Hoffman, who presided more in anger than in cool judiciousness, is in semiretirement. Abbie Hoffman now faces a serious drug charge in New York. Rennie Davis has become a follower of the teen-age Indian guru Maharaj Ji; during the latest trial, Davis occasionally folded himself into the lotus position in the courtroom. David Dellinger, 58, the elder of the original Seven, has been ill, most recently with gall bladder trouble. And in place of the choleric Judge Hoffman, there was Judge Edward Gignoux, a calm, amiable jurist imported from Maine. After Gignoux found Dellinger guilty (there was no jury), the defendant said: "You blew this one, but at least it was possible to have a dialogue. You have proved that a judge can be decent, a judge can be honorable, a judge can be polite."

Partly because of Judge Hoffman's earlier excesses, two appeals court decisions had thrown out not only the convictions of five of the seven for crossing state lines with intent to foment riots but also the 159 contempt citations handed down by Hoffman. The Government decided against retrying the riot charges, but U.S. Attorney James Thompson overcame the prosecutorial reluctance of superiors on the contempt issue because he believed that the obstructionist tactics of the defense during the first trial should not stand unpunished. After a five-week trial, Judge Gignoux concluded that only 13 of the contempt counts warranted convictions.

Punishable contempt, said Gignoux, exists when intentional "misbehavior, in the presence of a judge, is substantial enough to cause material obstruction of the trial." Lawyer William Kunstler was cited twice--for a harangue labeling the proceedings a "legal lynching" after Ralph Abernathy had been barred as a witness and later, when Abernathy came into court, for interrupting the trial and embracing him. Dellinger was convicted on seven counts, including vilifying Judge Hoffman as a "fascist," "liar" and "the chief prosecutor." Jerry Rubin and Abbie Hoffman got two citations each for stunts like dressing in judicial robes decorated with Stars of David.

That left Davis, John Froines, Tom Hayden, Lee Weiner and Lawyer Leonard Weinglass completely free and clear. As for those convicted, Gignoux declined to impose either jail sentences or fines, declaring: "The conduct of the defendants can in each circumstance reasonably be said to be a response, albeit excessive" to provocation by the judge and prosecutors. Even so, the long, slow epilogue of "the great conspiracy trial" is not yet over. The defendants may still appeal their new convictions. Kunstler is particularly concerned because he may well be disciplined by the New York Bar Association if his conviction stands.

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