Justice in New Haven

The Black Panthers and their sympathizers shouted their charges of political-racial persecution. Defense attorneys wrote a legal brief arguing that the Connecticut jury-selection system was unconstitutional. Yale President Kingman Brewster Jr. expressed skepticism about the judicial system's ability to be fair. All this even before the New Haven trial of Lonnie McLucas began. Throughout the eleven-week proceeding, the question persisted: Could a predominantly white, middle-class jury objectively judge the actions of a revolutionary Black Panther?

Last week the panel of ten whites and two blacks answered in the affirmative. After deliberating for 33 hours over six days--longer than any other jury in Connecticut's history--it convicted McLucas of conspiracy to murder for his role in the 1969 slaying of Alex Rackley. The maximum punishment is 15 years. At the same time, the jurors acquitted McLucas of three other charges that carried heavier penalties, including the capital offense of kidnaping resulting in death.

Daily Lessons. Said the elated defense attorney, Theodore Koskoff: "The judge was fair, the jury was fair, and, in this case, a black revolutionary was given a fair trial." Equally pleased was Judge Harold M. Mulvey, whose calm demeanor and evenhanded rulings became daily lessons on how well the judicial system can work. Mulvey told the jurors that they had shown "the whole wide world" how earnest they had been about returning a fair verdict. Kingman Brewster, whose remarks in April provoked hot arguments, was silent last week. "Absolutely no comment," he said. "And no comment on my no comment." As he left the courtroom, McLucas himself, though awaiting sentencing, appeared content with the verdict.

The Panthers and their supporters staged a relatively mild street demonstration, demanding McLucas' complete exoneration. Overall, however, there was an atmosphere of good feeling that had hardly been evident at the trial's outset. Beginning with the May Day demonstrations in New Haven that almost erupted in bloody rioting, city and court officials were nervous about potential violence. Bulletproof windows were installed in Judge Mulvey's courtroom, and protesters were banned from demonstrating on the courthouse steps. Marshals frisked those attending the trial.

As if the external circumstances were not harrowing enough, the jurors were subjected to macabre evidence and testimony. Color slides of Rackley's bullet-torn and tortured body were shown. Tapes were heard of the victim's whimpering voice, recorded by his fellow Panthers as they interrogated him before the killing. McLucas admitted that he had driven the car that took Rackley to the murder scene and that he had fired the second of two shots. The defendant insisted, however, that he had been an unwilling and--until the last moment--unwitting participant in the crime.

Through it all, the jurors remained calm and open-minded, particularly toward McLucas' own testimony. One juror told a reporter for the Hartford Courant: "It was McLucas' testimony that freed him, not his defense. He was a gentle man. He was as honest as the FBI and the New Haven police." During the long deliberations, what many had believed to be a small minority holding out for leniency turned out to have been the majority. Judge Mulvey's "dynamite charge" to the jurors after their fifth day of indecision, requesting the minority to reconsider the equally thoughtful views of the majority, was, according to one, the straw "that broke the camel's back."

For McLucas, 24, whose conviction will now be appealed, the judicial system worked as it should have. It treated him as an individual rather than a symbol of a radical movement. But the jury's verdict did not resolve some issues. Who was ultimately responsible for killing Alex Rackley? Was the Panther hierarchy culpable? State Prosecutor Arnold Markle has his own plans to find out. Seven more Panthers, including Party Chairman Bobby Scale, still await trial in the case.

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