The Nation: Judgment on Conspiracy

The scene has become almost a ritual—a new group of shaggy-haired defendants accused of conspiracy to commit some form of sensational violence, then a weeks-long trial featuring the testimony of paid Government informers, and then a jury verdict of not guilty. Cleared of all charges last week by a federal district court jury in Northern Florida after only four hours of deliberation were the so-called Gainesville Eight, seven members of Viet Nam Veterans Against the War and one nonvet. They had been accused of conspiring to disrupt the 1972 Republican National Convention—by...