Criminal contempt charges for two n Harrisburg case: 1971
Two refuse to testify before Harrisburg grand jury in an alleged bombing and kidnap plot involving Catholic antiwar activists are cited for criminal contempt May 25, 1971.
John Swinglish (left) and Paul Couming (right) both refused to talk despite being granted immunity.
Swinglish, of Washington, D.C., was the past president of the Catholic Peace Fellowship and a member of the Harrisburg Defense Committee. Couming was already on three years’ probation for burning a draft card.
Couming issued a statement saying he would "not cooperate with any branch of the United States government" until its officials are tried for Vietnam war crimes.
Both were released pending trial.
11 others were also subpoenaed and a dozen more subpoenas would be issued in the coming weeks with a number refusing to testify and being charged with either civil or criminal contempt, including a Catholic priest who refused to divulge anything said in confession.
The grand jury indicted Phillip Berrigan and five others on charges of conspiring to destroy government property and to kidnap national security advisor Henry Kissinger using the heating tunnels under Washington, D.C. to carry out the alleged plot.
The Harrisburg Defense Committee issued a statement charging the federal government with using the grand jury to “discover the kind of defense which will be provided for those indicted.”
The group charged that the subpoenas constituted, “an illegal use of the grand jury to obtain statements from witnesses for the defense after these witnesses had previously refused to talk with the FBI agents and is a total prostitution of the grand jury process.”
It would later be determined that prosecutors were calling anyone referred to in letters or conversations that had been illegally wiretapped in an effort to glean any detail even though they had no evidence that any of those subpoenaed had any connection with the case.
Two more people were later indicted by the grand jury on conspiracy charges for a total of eight.
It seemed surreal. A group of well-known Catholic and other non-violent activists committed to non-violence charged with conspiracy to raid federal offices, blow up government buildings and kidnap National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger using Washington D.C.’s heating tunnels to carry out the plot.
The eight charged were primarily composed of Catholic non-violent direct action activists: Phillip Berrigan, Sister Elizabeth MacAlister, Rev. Neil McLaughlin, Rev. Joseph Wenderoth, Anthony Scoblick, Mary Cain Scoblick along with Eqbal Ahmad—a Pakistani journalist and political scientist and John “Ted” Glick, a pacifist activist.
Glick’s case was severed from the others when he insisted on acting as his own attorney.
The trial sparked a nationwide defense effort that included a rally in Harrisburg that drew upwards of 20,000 people to support the seven.
Father Berrigan was serving time in the Lewisburg Federal Penitentiary, in central Pennsylvania at the time of the alleged conspiracy.
Boyd Douglas, who eventually would become an FBI informant and star prosecution witness - was a fellow inmate. Douglas was on a work-release at the library at nearby Bucknell University.
Douglas used his real connection with Berrigan to convince some students at Bucknell that he was an anti-war activist, telling some that he was serving time for anti-war activities. In fact, he was in prison for check forgery. In the course of the investigation the government resorted to unauthorized and illegal wiretapping.
Douglas set up a mail drop and persuaded students to transcribe letters intended for Berrigan into his school notebooks to smuggle into the prison. (They were later called, unwillingly, as government witnesses.)
Librarian Zoia Horn was jailed for nearly three weeks for refusing to testify for the prosecution on the grounds that her forced testimony would threaten intellectual and academic freedom. She was the first United States librarian to be jailed for refusing to share information as a matter of conscience.
U.S. attorneys obtained an indictment charging the Harrisburg Seven with conspiracy to kidnap Kissinger and to bomb steam tunnels. Former Attorney General Ramsey Clark led the defense team for their trial during the spring months of 1972. Clark used a then relatively untested theory of scientific jury selection—the use of demographic factors to identify unfavorable jurors.
Unconventionally, he didn't call any witnesses in his clients' defense, including the defendants themselves. He reasoned that the jury was sympathetic to his Catholic clients and that that sympathy would be ruined by their testimony that they'd burned their draft cards. After nearly 60 hours of deliberations, the jury remained hung and the defendants were freed.
Douglas testified that he transmitted transcribed letters between the defendants, which the prosecution used as evidence of a conspiracy among them. Several of Douglas' former girlfriends testified at the trial that he acted not just as an informer, but also as a catalyst and agent provocateur for the group's plans.
There were minor convictions for a few of the defendants, based on smuggling mail into the prison; most of those were overturned on appeal.
Glick was jailed for other “hit and stay” actions of the Flower City Conspiracy that included raiding draft boards in Philadelphia and in Delaware and the Washington, D.C. offices of General Electric. He was jailed 11 months for some of these actions.
After the trial of the main group of defendants in the Harrisburg resulted in a hung jury, prosecutors then dropped the charges against Glickl.
For more information and related images, see flic.kr/s/aHsm9Xu4r5
The photographer is unknown. The image is a United Press International photograph housed in the D.C. Library Washington Star Collection.
Criminal contempt charges for two n Harrisburg case: 1971
Two refuse to testify before Harrisburg grand jury in an alleged bombing and kidnap plot involving Catholic antiwar activists are cited for criminal contempt May 25, 1971.
John Swinglish (left) and Paul Couming (right) both refused to talk despite being granted immunity.
Swinglish, of Washington, D.C., was the past president of the Catholic Peace Fellowship and a member of the Harrisburg Defense Committee. Couming was already on three years’ probation for burning a draft card.
Couming issued a statement saying he would "not cooperate with any branch of the United States government" until its officials are tried for Vietnam war crimes.
Both were released pending trial.
11 others were also subpoenaed and a dozen more subpoenas would be issued in the coming weeks with a number refusing to testify and being charged with either civil or criminal contempt, including a Catholic priest who refused to divulge anything said in confession.
The grand jury indicted Phillip Berrigan and five others on charges of conspiring to destroy government property and to kidnap national security advisor Henry Kissinger using the heating tunnels under Washington, D.C. to carry out the alleged plot.
The Harrisburg Defense Committee issued a statement charging the federal government with using the grand jury to “discover the kind of defense which will be provided for those indicted.”
The group charged that the subpoenas constituted, “an illegal use of the grand jury to obtain statements from witnesses for the defense after these witnesses had previously refused to talk with the FBI agents and is a total prostitution of the grand jury process.”
It would later be determined that prosecutors were calling anyone referred to in letters or conversations that had been illegally wiretapped in an effort to glean any detail even though they had no evidence that any of those subpoenaed had any connection with the case.
Two more people were later indicted by the grand jury on conspiracy charges for a total of eight.
It seemed surreal. A group of well-known Catholic and other non-violent activists committed to non-violence charged with conspiracy to raid federal offices, blow up government buildings and kidnap National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger using Washington D.C.’s heating tunnels to carry out the plot.
The eight charged were primarily composed of Catholic non-violent direct action activists: Phillip Berrigan, Sister Elizabeth MacAlister, Rev. Neil McLaughlin, Rev. Joseph Wenderoth, Anthony Scoblick, Mary Cain Scoblick along with Eqbal Ahmad—a Pakistani journalist and political scientist and John “Ted” Glick, a pacifist activist.
Glick’s case was severed from the others when he insisted on acting as his own attorney.
The trial sparked a nationwide defense effort that included a rally in Harrisburg that drew upwards of 20,000 people to support the seven.
Father Berrigan was serving time in the Lewisburg Federal Penitentiary, in central Pennsylvania at the time of the alleged conspiracy.
Boyd Douglas, who eventually would become an FBI informant and star prosecution witness - was a fellow inmate. Douglas was on a work-release at the library at nearby Bucknell University.
Douglas used his real connection with Berrigan to convince some students at Bucknell that he was an anti-war activist, telling some that he was serving time for anti-war activities. In fact, he was in prison for check forgery. In the course of the investigation the government resorted to unauthorized and illegal wiretapping.
Douglas set up a mail drop and persuaded students to transcribe letters intended for Berrigan into his school notebooks to smuggle into the prison. (They were later called, unwillingly, as government witnesses.)
Librarian Zoia Horn was jailed for nearly three weeks for refusing to testify for the prosecution on the grounds that her forced testimony would threaten intellectual and academic freedom. She was the first United States librarian to be jailed for refusing to share information as a matter of conscience.
U.S. attorneys obtained an indictment charging the Harrisburg Seven with conspiracy to kidnap Kissinger and to bomb steam tunnels. Former Attorney General Ramsey Clark led the defense team for their trial during the spring months of 1972. Clark used a then relatively untested theory of scientific jury selection—the use of demographic factors to identify unfavorable jurors.
Unconventionally, he didn't call any witnesses in his clients' defense, including the defendants themselves. He reasoned that the jury was sympathetic to his Catholic clients and that that sympathy would be ruined by their testimony that they'd burned their draft cards. After nearly 60 hours of deliberations, the jury remained hung and the defendants were freed.
Douglas testified that he transmitted transcribed letters between the defendants, which the prosecution used as evidence of a conspiracy among them. Several of Douglas' former girlfriends testified at the trial that he acted not just as an informer, but also as a catalyst and agent provocateur for the group's plans.
There were minor convictions for a few of the defendants, based on smuggling mail into the prison; most of those were overturned on appeal.
Glick was jailed for other “hit and stay” actions of the Flower City Conspiracy that included raiding draft boards in Philadelphia and in Delaware and the Washington, D.C. offices of General Electric. He was jailed 11 months for some of these actions.
After the trial of the main group of defendants in the Harrisburg resulted in a hung jury, prosecutors then dropped the charges against Glickl.
For more information and related images, see flic.kr/s/aHsm9Xu4r5
The photographer is unknown. The image is a United Press International photograph housed in the D.C. Library Washington Star Collection.