Disorder in the Court

The accused: 19 former government and army officials of Grenada. The charge: murder. Chief among their alleged victims was Maurice Bishop, the leftist Prime Minister who died, along with ten of his followers, on Oct. 19, 1983, precipitating the U.S. invasion of Grenada six days later. Prominent among the defendants are Bernard Coard, 40, and his wife Phyllis, 39. They led an extreme leftist faction within Bishop's government that allegedly sought to wrest control from the popular Marxist leader, presumably with the intention of pursuing even more radical policies after they had gained power.

When the trial opened last week in St. George's, the island's capital, the proceedings were livery indeed. At one point, Phyllis Coard collapsed on the courtroom floor. As four policewomen struggled to lift the defendant, she shouted, "I've been on a hunger strike for six weeks!" Observed the trial judge dryly: "I must say, her voice doesn't sound like an ill person's." Other defendants, when asked to enter their pleas, loudly challenged the tribunal's legitimacy, and several said they refused to be tried while Grenada was under foreign occupation. After 90 tumultuous minutes, the trial was adjourned until next week.