Three for the Books

After long and contentious trials in California courts, verdicts were handed down last week in three well-publicized cases involving social revolution and violence:

THE HARRISES. The defendant began smiling as the foreman of the jury in the Los Angeles courtroom declared him innocent of six counts of assault with a deadly weapon. He continued to smile as the jury reduced two charges of armed robbery to the lesser crime of "taking a vehicle"--the term usually applied to joyriding. Then William Harris stopped smiling. Harris, 31, and his wife Emily, 29, listened impassively as they were found guilty of two counts of kidnaping and one of armed robbery for incidents connected with the shooting fracas in 1974 at Mel's Sporting Goods Store in Los Angeles. When sentenced later this month, the two still defiant members of the Symbionese Liberation Army--and Patty Hearst's old traveling companions --could be sent to jail for life.

The Harrises intend to appeal, maintaining that the jury was prejudiced against them. Defense Attorney Leonard Weinglass insisted that the five men and seven women who debated the Harrises' fate for 8 1/2 days had been "tainted." Two members of the jury panel, who were not selected for the final twelve, accused Juror Ronald F. Pruyn of saying in advance of the trial that the Harrises' guilt was "a foregone conclusion," a claim that Pruyn later denied on the stand. An old newspaper carrying a story on Patty Hearst's kidnaping was found in a men's room used by members of the jury. While the jury was being selected, three persons--who did not become jurors themselves--were seen by some chosen jurors making models of nooses on gallows. Despite Weinglass's emphasis on these events, legal experts pointed out that appeals are seldom won on such grounds, particularly when a strong case is made against the defendants.

The Harrises' legal problems do not end with this case. They still must stand trial in Oakland on a federal charge: taking part in the February 1974 kidnaping of Patty, the violent event that began the heiress's involvement with the tiny sect of S.L.A. terrorists. As for Patty, she is still undergoing psychiatric testing in San Diego while awaiting sentencing for bank robbery. She also remains under indictment on the same charges brought against the Harrises as a result of the incident at Mel's Sporting Goods Store.

THE SAN QUENTIN SIX.

After a trial of 16 months costing more than $2 million --both California records--a jury in San Rafael finally made up its mind about the San Quentin Six, a group of convicts accused of having taken part in a spectacular, bloody and unsuccessful escape attempt on Aug. 21, 1971. Three were convicted, three acquitted. The trial followed a series of violent events centering on George Jackson, a black prisoner and social revolutionary whose bitter writings about life behind bars became a popular book (Soledad Brother: The Prison Letters of George Jackson).

In 1970 Jackson and two other inmates at California's Soledad Prison (the "Soledad Brothers") were accused of murdering a guard. Before they went on trial, Jackson's younger brother Jonathan led a raid on the Marin County courthouse in an unsuccessful attempt to capture hostages to exchange for the trio. Jonathan Jackson, two convicts and the judge were all killed. A year later, George Jackson himself was killed while leading an attempt to flee San Quentin. During the struggle, three guards were shot or choked to death. Three others suffered throat wounds, but survived to give dramatic, husky-voiced testimony at the trial. Johnny L. Spain was found guilty of murder and conspiring to escape. David Johnson and Hugo Pinell were convicted of assault. All three could be given life in prison, but Spain and Pinell are already under that sentence, and Johnson is serving a 15-year maximum term for burglary. Still under indictment for conspiring in the escape attempt: activist Attorney Stephen Bingham, the nephew of New York Congressman Jonathan Bingham and grandson of a former Connecticut Governor and U.S. Senator. The state charges that Bingham slipped a 9-mm. Spanish Astra pistol to Jackson, who hid it under an Afro-style wig and used it in the assault. A fugitive from justice, Bingham is thought to be in Canada.

Houten, 27, deserved a new trial on charges that she had joined five members of Charles Manson's bloodthirsty cult in killing Actress Sharon Tate and six others in 1969. The court found that Van Houten had been denied a fair trial because her lawyer, Ronald Hughes, disappeared while the case was in progress; he has still not been found. But the three-judge panel denied the appeals of Manson, Susan Atkins and Patricia Krenwinkel, who claimed that pretrial publicity and improper conduct by the prosecution had denied them justice. Manson, Atkins and Krenwinkel had all been given life sentences earlier.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.