6. “The Exclusion of Authority”: Ramsey Clark’s Muted Evidence

See J. Anthony Lukas, “Chicago 7 Judge Bars Ramsey Clark as Defense Witness”, New York Times, January 29, 1970, pp. 1 and 25.

See New York Times, “Inadmissible Witness”, February 1, 1970, p. E12.

See Lukas, The Barnyard Epithet, p. 106.

See New York Times, “Contempt and Response”, February 17, 1970, p. 42.

J. Anthony Lukas, “Defendant in the Trial of ‘Chicago 7’ Calls the Judge ‘Very Unfair’”, New York Times, December 16, 1969, p. 40.

An exception to this failure to quote the defendants’ news conference statements was a quote by David Dellinger from a news conference, which was quoted early in the trial criticizing the judge’s holding of the four defense lawyers in an attempt to get the defendants to bargain away their sixth amendment rights. See Lukas, “2 Lawyers at Chicago 8 Trial”, p. 25. This quote was a very rare instance where the New York Times quoted the defendants’ statements at press conferences.

See Hall et al., Policing the Crisis.

See Lukas, The Barnyard Epithet, p. 76. The section is devoted to criticizing the judge’s exclusion of testimony from Mailer and Goodwin and clearly illustrates Lukas’ disapproval for the restrictions that Judge Hoffman was placing on the presentation of the defense case. Apart from his apparent annoyance at the injustice of Judge Hoffman’s rulings in his interview with me John Schultz noted Lukas’ frustration at the apparent failure of the adversarial system to arrive at the truth of what had really happened in Chicago. Schultz described Lukas’ comments to him about the trial in the following terms, “Tony was saying that he found the adversarial system bad for getting at the truth as he saw it, he had hoped that that the trial would pursue issues, but really the system was a lousy way of getting at the truth. He used the word ‘lousy.’” See Author Interview with John Schultz May 5th 2005.

Lukas, The Barnyard Epithet, p. 75.

Ibid. Walter Pomeroy, Clark’s other aid, who also had sections of his testimony excluded from the jury and who read these statements, including his criticisms of Mayor Daley’s intransigence, outside the courtroom also had these printed by the New York Times. See Lukas, “Conspiracy Jury Hears ex-U.S. Aide”, p. 30.

See for example Flamm, Law and Order, pp. 96–97 on the white backlash against the poverty program that the riots generated. Flamm also suggests that many whites believed that the poverty program actually encouraged “a sense of entitlement” among disadvantaged groups that led them to riot when things did not go all their own way. See Flamm, p. 96.

See Flamm, Law and Order.

J. Anthony Lukas, “Chicago 7 Judge Bars Ramsey Clark as Defense Witness”, New York Times, January 29, 1970, p. 1.

T. Fuller, “Clark Barred from Testifying to the ‘7’ Jury”, Washington Post, January 29, 1970, p. A2.

New York Times, “Inadmissible Witness”, p. E12.

See Kalven, “Please Morris, Don’t Make Trouble”, p. 223 and Kalven Introduction to Contempt Transcript of the Contempt Citations, p. xii.

New York Times, “Inadmissible Witness”, p. E12.

See Gitlin, The Whole World is Watching, pp. 12–13.

New York Times, “Inadmissible Witness”, p. E12.

See Author Interview with Tom Hayden March 29th, 2005 and Author Interview with Gerry Lefcourt May 25th, 2005. See also Wiener, (Ed.) Conspiracy in the Streets, pp. 72–73.

As a way of getting it on the record with the jury that such an authoritative witness as Ramsey Clark had been prepared to testify for the defense Tom Hayden, on his own admission, had volunteered to shout out a comment to that effect at a later stage in the trial. See Author Interview with Tom Hayden March 29, 2005. This he did and was sentenced to the maximum, 6 months, for contempt of court by Judge Hoffman for his actions. See Contempt Transcript of the Contempt Citations, p. 98.

New York Times, “Inadmissible Witness”, p. E12.

T. Wicker, “Making Ideals a Fraud”, New York Times, February 1, 1970, p. E12.

D. P Moynhian to H.R Haldeman quoted in T. Wells, The War Within: America’s Battle over Vietnam, Berkeley, University of California Press, 1994, p. 414.

Lukas, The Barnyard Epithet, pp. 72–73. Lukas suggests in his book that the judge’s exclusion of the Lake Villa document, written by defendants Rennie Davis and Tom Hayden, in which they outlined their nonviolent plans for the convention, was a far more significant blow to the defendants’ ability to present relevant evidence in the case.

See Hall et al., Policing the Crisis.

Gitlin, The Whole World is Watching, p. 52.

See Washington Post, “Justice on Trial”, February 5, 1970, p. A22.

S. Hall, “A World at one with Itself ”, in S. Cohen and J. Young, (Eds.) The Manufacture of News: Deviance, Social Problems and the Mass Media, London, Constable, 1973, p. 88.

Author Interview with William Chapman May 30th, 2005. See Washington Post January 1 to January 30, 1970.