Not Guilty By Necessity

"Everyone on the jury was over 30," a beaming Amy Carter, 19, told cheering supporters after she and 14 co-defendants, including over-30 Activist Abbie Hoffman, were acquitted last week of trespassing and disorderly conduct charges. Their seven-day trial stemmed from a November protest against CIA recruiting at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. Carter and her colleagues were allowed by the judge to invoke a centuries-old, common-law "necessity defense." An offense may be considered justifiable if it is directed against a "clear and imminent danger" that is of greater harm to the community, in this case alleged CIA lawbreaking in Central America. To bolster the cause, Defense Attorney Leonard Weinglass, one of Hoffman's lawyers in the 1969 Chicago Seven trial, got testimony from former Attorney General Ramsey Clark and onetime Contra Leader Edgar Chamorro. "These young people are doing perhaps what most of us should be doing," Juror Anne Gaffney, 64, said afterward.