Two Trials
Their first trial on state trespass charges, held in Ithaca, ended in a mistrial due to a hung jury.
The four activists were then retried on federal charges in Binghamton, generally considered to be a more conservative area where obtaining a conviction would be easier. However, local activists staged a massive protest outside the courthouse each day of the trial, and organized a six-day Citizen's Tribunal on Iraq (modeled after the World Tribunal on Iraq), featuring many internationally known speakers.
The four defended themselves pro se, but were assisted by a team of attorneys, such as William P. Quigley. Although they were cleared of the most serious charges, they were convicted of misdemeanor charges of damage to government property and entering a military station for an unlawful purpose. All of them have been released from prison after serving their terms.
Read more about this topic: The Saint Patrick's Day Four
Famous quotes containing the word trials:
“Misfortune is never mournful to the soul that accepts it; for such do always see that every cloud is an angel’s face. Every man deems that he has precisely the trials and temptations which are the hardest of all others for him to bear; but they are so, simply because they are the very ones he most needs.”
—Lydia M. Child (1802–1880)
“All middle-class novels are about the trials of three, all upper-class novels about mass fornication, all revolutionary novels about a bad man turned good by a tractor.”
—Christina Stead (1902–1983)