Word: attica
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Slow Judgment. The trial of John Hill (part Mohawk Indian) and Charley Joe Pernasilice (part Catawba) for murder and attempted murder was about to end, concluding a chapter of the American tragedy called Attica. But the end was slow in coming. It took three days of lengthy deliberations before Jury Forewoman Rosa Moore, one of two blacks on the panel, finally announced the verdict on Saturday night. Hill was found guilty of murder. Pernasilice was found guilty of second degree attempted assault. The men's lawyers promised to appeal...
Hill and Pernasilice had been accused of murdering Prison Guard William Quinn, who died of injuries suffered in a beating that occurred during the worst prison uprising in the nation's history. At the time, Hill was in Attica for attempted assault, and Pernasilice was serving a sentence for possession of a stolen motorcycle. Quinn was one of 43 men (eleven guards and 32 convicts) who died as a result of the four-day riot in September 1971-most of them shot by state police when they stormed the maximum-security prison in upstate New York behind a fusillade...
...time the trial of Hill and Pernasilice opened, Attica had become remote, if not forgotten. Few thought about this first major Attica trial, the other trials to follow and the added indictments that might yet be brought. Said Kunstler, whose defense of Indian Activist Russell Means last year and the Chicago Seven in 1970 drew greater attention: "The case is too old. Attica is a painful subject, and most people want to stay away." Yet Showman Kunstler could not resist the temptation to flay witnesses and have a go at State Supreme Court Justice Gilbert H. King, who presided firmly...
...judge dismissed the murder charge against Pernasilice, but let stand a second for attempted murder. This did not satisfy Clark. The former U.S. Attorney General declared in his summation: "There is no believable evidence to find Charley Joe Pernasilice guilty of any offense other than being an inmate of Attica on September...
Elsewhere, though, the author speculates that Rockefeller refused to come to Attica simply from fear of "voter reaction." During the crisis, Wicker had only one personal contact with the Governor. When he called him to describe the seriousness of the situation and to appeal for a meeting, the Governor suddenly interrupted him with what Wicker regarded as unnerving campaign enthusiasm: "I know you've all worked hard and taken great risks and I appreciate it. I really do. It's just great . . . Just great." Rockefeller was not the only one wirh an eye on his constituency. Black Panther...