TRIALS OF HISTORY
The Mission: To research a criminal trial and to place this in historical and social context.
Due Date: a) Wednesday, February 15, Student Mini-Presentations (Come to class prepared to offer a five-to-ten-minute overview of your trial)
b) Essay due as part of 1st-Half Portfolio on Wednesday, February 29
Approximate Length: 5+ pages
The Procedure: Choose one of the historic trials below. Research your case and write a concise analytical description of the trial that places it in historical and social context. Please include a bibliography with your paper. Formal footnoting is not required but any quotations should be referenced.
Here are some questions you might ask:
What are the details of your case (the individuals involved, the charges, the proceedings of the trial itself, the punishment and aftermath)?
What was the historical significance of your trial?
To what extent can the case offer an entry point into an analysis of the society in which it took place? How did various members of the public react to the case and to the verdict, and what does this reveal?
Has the case lived on in historical and collective memory? If so, how, and what significance would you attach to this?
The trial need not be chosen from the list below. However, if you decide to choose another trial yourself please check with me to determine if it is an appropriate case.
Some Possible Historic Trials
Alcibiades (415 BCE, Blasphemy, Athens)
Socrates (399, BCE, Athens)
Gauis Verres (70 BCE, Rome)
Jesus of Nazareth (Jerusalem)
Joan of Arc (1431)
Martin Luther (1521, Heresy)
Thomas More (1535, Treason)
Michael Servetus (1553, Heresy)
Martin Guerre Trials (Defrauding the Guerre family, abusing Bertrande Guerre)
Mary, Queen of Scots (1586, Treason)
Giordano Bruno (192 and 1600, Heresy)
Gunpowder Plot Trial (1606, Treason, London)
Galileo Galilei (1633, Heresy)
Charles I (1649, Treason, London)
Salem Witch Trials (1692, Massachusetts)
John Peter Zenger (1735, Publishing Seditious Libels, New York)
Boston Massacre Trials (1770)
"Bounty" Mutineers Court-Martial (1792)
Louis XVI and/or Marie Antoinette (1792 and 1793, Treason)
Charlotte Corday (1793, Murder)
Amistad Trials (1839-40)
Daniel M'Naghten (1843, Murder)
Daniel O'Connell (1844, Seditious Conspiracy)
John Brown (1859, Treason, Virginia)
Trials of the Lincoln Assassination Conspirators (1865)
Henry Wirz (1865, War Crimes)
Susan B. Anthony (1873, Illegal Voting)
Mountain Meadows Massacre Trials (1875-76)
Ned Kelly (1880, Murder, Australia)
Wyatt Earp-Doc Holliday (1881)
Louis Riel (1885)
Haymarket Riot Trial (1886, Chicago)
Lizzie Borden (1893, Murder, Massachusetts)
Alfred Dreyfus (1894 and 1899, Treason, France)
Oscar Wilde (1895, Sodomy, Indecency)
Emile Zola (1898, Defamation) -- perhaps pair with Dreyfus Trials
Bill Haywood (1907, Idaho)
Triangle Fire Trial (1911)
Leo Frank (1913, Atlanta, 1913)
Henriette Caillaux (1914, Murder)
Archduke Franz Ferdinand's Assassins Trial (1914, Treason)
Margaret Sanger (1914, 1916)
Roger Casement (1916, Treason)
Mata Hari (1917, Spying)
Black Sox Trial (1921)
Sacco-Vanzetti (1921)
Fatty Arbuckle (1921-22)
Mohandas Gandhi (1922, Sedition)
Leopold and Loeb (1924, Murder)
Adolf Hitler's "Beer Hall" Putsch Trial (1924, Treason)
Scopes "Monkey" Trial (1925, Teaching Evolution, Tennessee)
Al Capone Trial (1931, Income Tax Evasion)
Massie "Honor Killing" Trials (1931-32, Hawaii)
Scottsboro Boys (1931-37, Alabama)
Reichstag Fire Trial (1933, Treason, Arson, Berlin)
Richard Hauptman [Lindberg Kidnapping] (1935, New Jersey)
Moscow Purge Trials (1936 and 1937-38)
Nuremberg Trial (1945-46)
Tokyo War Crimes Trial (1946-48)
Alger Hiss (1949-50, United States)
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg (1951, Treason, United States)
Jomo Kenyatta (1952-53, Membership in the Mau Mau, Kenya)
Emmett Till Case
Steven Truscott (1959, Murder, Goderich, Ontario)
Adolf Eichmann (1961, Crimes Against Humanity, Jerusalem)
Nelson Mandela (1963-64, Pretoria, South Africa)
Lenny Bruce (1964, Obscenity, New York)
Regis Debray (1967, Entering Bolivia To Participate In An Armed Insurrection)
Chicago Seven Trial (1969-70)
My Lai Courts-Martial (1970)
Charles Manson (1970-71, Murder, California)
Pentagon Papers (Daniel Ellsburg) Trial
Henry Morgentaler (1973-76, Abortion, Canada)
Patty Hearst (1976, Robbery, California)
Leonard Peltier (1977, Murder)
Vaclav Havel (1977-89, Subversive Activities, Prague, Czechoslovakia)
Dan White (Harvey Milk Murder) Trial (1979)
Clifford Olson 1980-81, Murder, Vancouver)
Lindy and Michael Chamberlain "Dingo" Trial (1982, Australia)
Sicilian Mafiosi Trial (1986-87)
Klaus Barbie (1987, Crimes Against Humanity, Lyons, France)
McMartin Preschool Abuse Trials (1987-90, California)
David Milgaard Trial And Hearing(1970, 1992, Murder, Canada0
Rodney King Beating Trial (1992-93, California)
Sue Rodriguez Appeal (1993, Assisted Suicide, Ottawa)
Karla Homolka and Paul Bernardo Trials (1993 and 1995, Murder, Ontario)
O.J. Simpson (1995, Murder)
Truth And Reconciliation Commission (South Africa)
Slobodan Milosevic (War Crimes, The Hague)
David Irving (2000, 2006, Holocaust Denial)
Air India Trial (2003-2004, Terrorism)
Saddam Hussein (2006, Mass Killing)
Robert Pickton (2007, Murder, British Columbia)
Hosni Mubarak (2011-2012, Egypt)
Bradley Manning (2011-2012, Wikileaks)
