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The Harrisburg Seven were a group of religious anti-war activists, led by Philip Berrigan, charged in 1971 in a failed
conspiracy A conspiracy, also known as a plot, is a secret plan or agreement between persons (called conspirers or conspirators) for an unlawful or harmful purpose, such as murder or treason, especially with political motivation, while keeping their agr ...
case in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, located in
Harrisburg Harrisburg is the capital city of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Dauphin County. With a population of 50,135 as of the 2021 census, Harrisburg is the 9th largest city and 15th largest municipality in P ...
. The seven were Phillip Berrigan,
Elizabeth McAlister Elizabeth McAlister (born November 17, 1939), also known as Liz McAlister, is an American peace activist and former nun of the Religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary. She married Philip Berrigan and was excommunicated from the Catholic Church. Mc ...
, Rev. Neil McLaughlin, Rev. Joseph Wenderoth, Eqbal Ahmad, Anthony Scoblick, and Mary Cain Scoblick. The group was unsuccessfully prosecuted for alleged criminal plots during the Vietnam War era. Six of the seven were Roman Catholic nuns or priests. The seventh, Eqbal Ahmad, was a Pakistani journalist, American-trained political scientist, and self-described ''odd man out'' of the group. Haverford College physics professor William C. Davidon, the mastermind of the Media FBI burglary, was named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the case. In 1970, the group attracted government attention when Berrigan, then imprisoned, and McAlister were caught trading letters that alluded to kidnapping
National Security Advisor A national security advisor serves as the chief advisor to a national government on matters of security. The advisor is not usually a member of the government's cabinet but is usually a member of various military or security councils. National sec ...
Henry Kissinger and blowing up steam tunnels.


Background

The defendants stood accused of conspiring to raid federal offices, to bomb government property, and to kidnap Kissinger. Father Berrigan was serving time in the Lewisburg Federal Penitentiary, in central Pennsylvania. Boyd Douglas, who eventually would become an FBI informant and star prosecution witness, was a fellow inmate. Douglas was on a work-release at the library at nearby
Bucknell University Bucknell University is a private liberal arts college in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1846 as the University at Lewisburg, it now consists of the College of Arts and Sciences, Freeman College of Management, and the College of Engineerin ...
. Douglas used his connection with Berrigan to convince some students at Bucknell that he was an anti-war activist, telling some that he was serving time for anti-war activities. In fact, he was in prison for check forgery. In the course of the investigation the government resorted to unauthorized and illegal wiretapping. Douglas set up a mail drop and persuaded students to transcribe letters intended for Berrigan into his school notebooks to smuggle into the prison. They were later called, unwillingly, as government witnesses. Douglas was the chief prosecution witness. Librarian
Zoia Horn Zoia Markovna Horn (née Polisar; March 14, 1918July 12, 2014), born in Ukraine, became in 1972 the first United States librarian to be jailed for refusing to share information as a matter of conscience. Horn, an outspoken member of the American ...
was jailed for nearly three weeks for refusing to testify for the prosecution on the grounds that her forced testimony would threaten intellectual and academic freedom. She was the first United States librarian to be jailed for refusing to share information as a matter of conscience.


The trial

U.S. attorneys obtained an indictment charging the Harrisburg Seven with
conspiracy A conspiracy, also known as a plot, is a secret plan or agreement between persons (called conspirers or conspirators) for an unlawful or harmful purpose, such as murder or treason, especially with political motivation, while keeping their agr ...
to kidnap Kissinger and to bomb steam tunnels. They filed the case in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, seat of the Middle District. Activist attorney and former
Attorney General In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general or attorney-general (sometimes abbreviated AG or Atty.-Gen) is the main legal advisor to the government. The plural is attorneys general. In some jurisdictions, attorneys general also have exec ...
Ramsey Clark led the defense team for their trial during the spring months of 1972. Unconventionally, he didn't call any witnesses in his clients' defense, including the defendants themselves. He reasoned that the jury was sympathetic to his Catholic clients and that that sympathy would be ruined by their testimony that they'd burned their draft cards. After nearly 60 hours of deliberations, the jury remained hung and the defendants were freed. Douglas testified that he transmitted transcribed letters between the defendants, which the prosecution used as evidence of a conspiracy among them. Several of Douglas' former girlfriends testified at the trial that he acted not just as an informer, but also as a catalyst and agent provocateur for the group's plans. There were minor convictions for a few of the defendants, based on smuggling mail into the prison; most of those were overturned on appeal. The trial gained some notoriety for the use of scientific jury selection – use of demographic factors to identify unfavorable jurors – to keep the defendants from being convicted.Huss, Matthew T.
Psychology and Law, Now and in the Next Century: The Promise of an Emerging Area of Psychology
'' In J. S. Halonen & S. F. Davis (Eds.). The many faces of psychological research in the 21st century (chap. 11). Retrieved 8 September 2007. Citing Schulman, J., Shaver, P., Colman, R., Emrich, B., & Christie, R. (1973, May). "Recipe for a jury." ''Psychology Today'', 37-44, 77-84.


See also

*
COINTELPRO COINTELPRO ( syllabic abbreviation derived from Counter Intelligence Program; 1956–1971) was a series of covert and illegal projects actively conducted by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) aimed at surveilling, infiltrati ...
* Richard Drinnon


References

{{Authority control 20th-century American trials American anti–Vietnam War activists Quantified groups of defendants Political activists from Pennsylvania DePaul University Special Collections and Archives holdings