Word: battisti
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...case had indicted only students for their part in the rioting that preceded the shooting. Former Attorney General John Mitchell had refused even to convene a federal grand jury. His successor, Elliot Richardson, had done so, and eight Guardsmen were indicted. But after hearing the evidence, Federal Judge Frank Battisti had thrown out the charges on a technicality...
...restless search for justice for them and nine others wounded by Ohio National Guardsmen seems likely to haunt the U.S. on through history. What was apparently the last chance for a criminal court to set the matter to rest ended last week when Federal Judge Frank J. Battisti ordered an acquittal on technical grounds for eight Guardsmen defendants-even though, he added, they may not have been "justified in discharging their weapons...
...case had reached Battisti's federal court in Cleveland through a complex series of events. First an Ohio grand jury refused to indict any Guardsman for the 13-second volley of shots fired into a crowd during a rally to protest the 1970 U.S. invasion of Cambodia. Then Attorney General John Mitchell refused to bring any federal charges. But parents, survivors and sympathizers would not accept that result. Last year Attorney General Elliot Richardson was persuaded to renew the investigation. This time a federal grand jury charged eight of the Guardsmen with willfully violating the victims' civil rights...
...prove not only the consequence of the illegal act but the purposeful intent to commit it in violation of constitutional prohibitions-a tougher standard of guilt than that required in a murder trial. Prosecutors were able to show that the Guardsmen had used "excessive and unjustified" force, but, said Battisti, who acted before the defense had begun its case, "the Government has presented no evidence bearing directly on the intentions of [the] defendants who fired their weapons." He said that the evidence suggested that the "Guardsmen fired for any number of reasons, including the mistaken belief that an order...
LAST WEEK WAS a good week for killers. Lt. William L. Calley, Jr. went free on parole, and U.S. District Judge Frank J. Battisti ruled there wasn't enough evidence that Ohio National Guardsmen had conspired to deprive the four Kent State University students they killed in 1970 of their constitutional rights even to send the case to a jury...