Brief Filed to Reverse Bobby Seale's Conviction

    12e 

President 
Hon. Francis E. Rivers 

PRESS RELEASE Diciesés Counsel 
ck Greenb 

ahecai efense lund i daek eesenbete 
Director, Public Relations 

-EGAL DEFENSE AND EDUCATIONAL FUND, INC. Jesse DeVore, Jr. 
ambus Circle, New York, N.Y. 10019 * JUdson 6-8397 ion NUMBER 212-749-8467 

June 29, 1970 

Attorneys for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF), 

have filed a brief in the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh 

Circuit on behalf of Black Panther Chairman Bobby Seale, who is fighting 

a four-year prison sentence imposed by Federal Judge Julius Hoffman in 

Chicago for contempt of court during the trial of the Chicago Eight. 

The brief contends that Seale's conviction must be reversed and the 
charges dismissed for the following reasons: 

First - he was wrongfully denied the fundamental right to present 

a defense to the criminal conspiracy charges either by counsel of 

his choice -- Charles R. Garry -- or by representing himself. 

Second - the court convicted him of contempt and sentenced him to an 

unprecedented four-year term without providing him essential due 

process safeguards including: 

-- the right to jury trial 

-- the right to an impartial judge 

-- the right to a fair hearing on the issues of guilt 

and penalty. 

Third - the brief contends that Seale's conduct, consisting as it 

did solely of attempts to protest the denial of his rights to be 

represented by counsel and to represent himself, cannot be punished 
as criminal contempt. 

Finally - the brief contends that reversal is required in the 

interests of justice because of misconduct by the trial court and 

the prosecuting attorneys. 

Jack Greenberg, Director-Counsel of the Legal Defense Fund, has stated 

the Legal Defense Fund's interest in the Bobby Seale Case. "Among the 

important cases LDF takes are cases which may or may not make precedent 

or affect many people but are primarily important because they test 

faith in the legal system to achieve justice without prejudice. We have 

taken such cases when we had the manpower or funds. These often are 

cases where emotions have so invested the legal controversy that whether 

there is a fair trial determines what many people think about law. Over 

the years we have taken on numerous capital cases of this sort, or cases 

involving race riots or murder or rape. The legal issues may not seem 

very far-reaching and only a single individual may be involved. The 

causes often have not been popular." 

“An individual whose case has this kind of symbolic significance is 

Bobby Seale. Should there be any doubt about it we need look at a recent 

poll conducted among 1,255 blacks nationwide for Time magazine by the 

Harris organization found that 24 per cent of all black people say ‘the 

Black Panther philosophy is the same as mine.' Among teenage blacks, 

43 per cent go along with the Panthers. In addition, 64 per cent of 

all blacks feel the Panthers have given them ‘a sense of pride' and 80 

per cent feel that the shootings of the Panthers have made them feel that 

-more- 



‘blacks have to stand together.'" 

It is important that an individual like Seale receive the full 

assurance of his constitutional rights. 

LDF attorneys, Mrs. Elizabeth B. DuBois, Eric Schnapper and Conrad 

Harper helped prepare this 178 page brief. 

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NOTE: Please bear in mind that the LDF isacompletely separate and distinct 

organization even though we were established by the NAACP and those initials 

are retained in our name. Our correct designation is NAACP Legal Defense 

and Educational Fund, Inc., frequently shortened to LDF.