Attica Verdict: Guilty

Despite its bloody, passion-inciting origins, the six-week trial had been surprisingly subdued. Few spectators were on hand; until the end, the press was all but absent. Only last week did Room 303 of the Erie County courthouse in downtown Buffalo begin to fill. Representatives of the Six Nations Indian "family" occupied one row in the spectators gallery. Sketch artists and television reporters craned for a better view. Defense Attorneys Ramsey Clark and William Kunstler and their young convict clients sat at an L-shaped table scarcely five feet from Chief Prosecutor Louis Aidala. Sheriffs' deputies and bailiffs stood poised to quell any disturbance. Outside, as many as 400 pickets marched in chilling rain and snow round the gray granite edifice.

Slow Judgment. The trial of John Hill (part Mohawk Indian) and Charley Joe Pernasilice (part Catawba) for murder and attempted murder was about to end, concluding a chapter of the American tragedy called Attica. But the end was slow in coming. It took three days of lengthy deliberations before Jury Forewoman Rosa Moore, one of two blacks on the panel, finally announced the verdict on Saturday night. Hill was found guilty of murder. Pernasilice was found guilty of second degree attempted assault. The men's lawyers promised to appeal.

Hill and Pernasilice had been accused of murdering Prison Guard William Quinn, who died of injuries suffered in a beating that occurred during the worst prison uprising in the nation's history. At the time, Hill was in Attica for attempted assault, and Pernasilice was serving a sentence for possession of a stolen motorcycle. Quinn was one of 43 men (eleven guards and 32 convicts) who died as a result of the four-day riot in September 1971--most of them shot by state police when they stormed the maximum-security prison in upstate New York behind a fusillade of bullets.

By the time the trial of Hill and Pernasilice opened, Attica had become remote, if not forgotten. Few thought about this first major Attica trial, the other trials to follow and the added indictments that might yet be brought. Said Kunstler, whose defense of Indian Activist Russell Means last year and the Chicago Seven in 1970 drew greater attention: "The case is too old. Attica is a painful subject, and most people want to stay away." Yet Showman Kunstler could not resist the temptation to flay witnesses and have a go at State Supreme Court Justice Gilbert H. King, who presided firmly. "I'm fed up with your telling me I have no conscience," said King, rejecting one ill-timed Kunstler motion for dismissal. "I have as much conscience, I think, as you have."

Fatal Beating. Clark, wearing his trademark narrow tie, appeared to have the easier defense. His client, Pernasilice, was accused of joining in the fatal beating of Quinn, yet only one man claimed to have witnessed Pernasilice in the act. Former Inmate Edward Zimmer said he saw Pernasilice strike Quinn over the shoulders with a stick; doctors who examined Quinn found no injuries in that area. In the closing days of the trial, the judge dismissed the murder charge against Pernasilice, but let stand a second for attempted murder. This did not satisfy Clark. The former U.S. Attorney General declared in his summation: "There is no believable evidence to find Charley Joe Pernasilice guilty of any offense other than being an inmate of Attica on September 9,1971."

Kunstler seemed to have a harder task defending Hill. Dali-mustachioed Prosecutor Aidala produced five witnesses who supposedly saw Hill striking Quinn with a wooden object. Kunstler replied that four of the five had been offered leniency if they testified against Hill. Not so, claimed Aidala. "The evidence," he said, "is that there were no promises made to the witnesses."

The verdict leaves the sorrowful saga of Attica far from finished. Not one guard faces trial. Of the 62 inmates indicted, 38 still face prosecution, including Hill for another offense. Charges against 13 more have been dropped, six pleaded guilty to lesser charges, and one inmate was acquitted. For three of those originally charged, there will be no day in court. They have since died.

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