University of Virginia Library

American Guillotines

Reprinted from The Daily Tar Heel, student
newspaper of the University of North Carolina.

The system of "Roman law courts" -
which used to prevail in England as late as the
mid-seventeenth century - enabled officers of
the king to hang people on the spot without a
trial.

Now, Mississippi Sen. John Tennis has in
effect suggested that "Roman law" justice be
revived - for certain people the government
may deem too dangerous to the American
way.

Stennis wants a "constitutional
amendment, to say that under certain facts a
person would forfeit their right to a trial."

He referred specifically to the recently
concluded trial of the "Chicago Seven" - in
which five Leftist leaders were found guilty of
crossing state lines to incite a riot at the 1968
Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

Only last week, the Delta State Democrat
had been portrayed as something approaching
a paragon of justice when he offered his
amendment for uniform school desegregation
in the North and the South.

It did not take very long for the Senator's
reactionary character to resurface.

We do not doubt that some higher
government officials agree with Stennis that
people so obviously subversive as the
"Chicago Seven" should be jailed without
question.

The trial itself has unnecessarily caused a
credibility gap between a large segment of the
population and the judicial system. It has also
been an embarrassment to the Justice
Department - although it may have revealed
the true nature of Attorney General John
Mitchell's brand of justice.

Stennis claims the disruptions in Judge
Julius Hoffman's courtroom were "willful and
deliberate, just a continuation of their street
riots."

The protesters at Chicago applied for a
parade permit months before the convention
and were refused - as were their repeated
requests after that. The demonstrators
complied with the basic law for petition to
governmental authority.

The American Revolutionary War resulted
largely because the repeated petitions of
American colonists were ignored by the
government then ruling - England.

Not only were the demonstrators refused
permission to march or parade, but they were
not allowed to walk on the sidewalks - they
were even ordered out of the city parks
altogether at first. And it was in Lincoln Park
on August 28 that the first assault by the
police took place.

The demonstrators had no weapons or any
defense against the clubs swung against them.
Should they be blamed if they later armed
themselves for their own protection?

Now Judge Hoffman, acting for the state
in putting away the seven "conspirators" for
as long as possible, has resorted to the old
English practice of imprisonment for debt.
The judge has ordered the demonstrators held
beyond the five-year prison term as hostages
for the court costs estimated at $60,000.

Debtor's prisons supposedly died out in
this country in the nineteenth century.

But medieval justice continues to be the
rule in "certain cases," determined by the
ruling oligarchy. Now John Stennis wants
abolition of the right of trial for "certain
people."

The next thing we'll probably see is stocks
and pillories...and guillotines.