Trials and Imprisonment
The UFF's members were tried repeatedly on various federal and state charges. In March 1986, seven of them (the so-called "Ohio Seven") were convicted of conspiracy, receiving sentences ranging from 15 to 53 years. In 1987 all eight members were charged with sedition and racketeering. Eventually five accepted plea bargains, had charges against them dropped, or were tried separately, and the trial of the remaining three ended in 1989 with an acquittal for sedition and a locked jury on the racketeering charges. Thomas Manning and Richard Williams were given life sentences for the 1981 murder of state trooper Philip Lamonaco, and Laaman was convicted in the 1982 attempted murder of two state troopers. The well-known radical lawyer William Kunstler represented UFF members in some of these proceedings.
Toure, Curzi, Gros, and Carol Manning were released during the 1990s, and Levasseur was released in November 2004. Williams died in prison in December 2005, and Tom Manning and Laaman remain in prison.
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Famous quotes containing the words trials and, trials and/or imprisonment:
“Without trials and tribulations, no one can become a Buddha.”
—Chinese proverb.
“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)
“... imprisonment itself, entailing loss of liberty, loss of citizenship, separation from family and loved ones, is punishment enough for most individuals, no matter how favorable the circumstances under which the time is passed.”
—Mary B. Harris (1874–1957)