Background
William Kunstler was born on 7 July 1919 in New York City, the son of a proctologist, Monroe Bradford Kunstler, and Frances Mandelbaum Kunstler. Kunstler had one brother, Michael, and one sister, Mary.
(The controversial lawyer looks back on his life and caree...)
The controversial lawyer looks back on his life and career, describing his most famous cases, from the Chicago Seven to the World Trade Center bombing
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0806517557/?tag=2022091-20
(Like most things William Kunstler does, the poems in this...)
Like most things William Kunstler does, the poems in this collection rattle the foundations of venerable American institutions, in this case our poetry canon and our entrenched notion that institutionalized racism is a thing of the past. His blending of high seriousness of purpose with lightheartedness of tone appears effortless and masterful. This is not ivory tower stuff. It is experience lived as fully as possible and only then recast in lyric form. Kunstler knew most of the people he writes about. A good number of those who live on in these pages had him as their only defender, some ke kept out of prison, others from the electric chair. In many ways, this book is Kunstler's true autobiography. Reading the sonnet and accompanying prose paragraph on Dr. Martin Luther Kings, Jr., for example, we learn all we need to know about the bond between Kunstler and the younger clergyman, and the seven years they worked together. And from the sonnet and commentary on Morton Stavis we grasp how deeply Kunstler feels the calling of his profession, by his anguish at the loss of his attorney friend who had for many years defended him in the courts.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1888363169/?tag=2022091-20
(A scandalous love affair which ended in double murder - w...)
A scandalous love affair which ended in double murder - with a startling solution based on new evidence. Exciting tale of murder and the slings and arrows of its aftermath
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0043MH0KO/?tag=2022091-20
William Kunstler was born on 7 July 1919 in New York City, the son of a proctologist, Monroe Bradford Kunstler, and Frances Mandelbaum Kunstler. Kunstler had one brother, Michael, and one sister, Mary.
Kunstler graduated from DeWitt Clinton High School Manhattan Annex in New York and later from Yale University. He received his LL. B. degree from Columbia University School of Law in 1948.
William Kunstler was one of the country's best known and most reviled radical lawyers, defending clients.
His clients included civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. , mafia don John Gotti, and a terrorist accused in the bombing of the World Trade Center in New York City.
Kunstler's most famous trial was the one in which seven people-the Chicago Seven, as they came to be known-were charged with conspiracy to commit a riot at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Illinois.
After the Worthy case, Kunstler ended up spending a lot of time in the southern United States, representing Freedom Riders arrested on breach of peace and disorderly conduct charges for staging civil rights protests in places like Birmingham, Alabama, and Biloxi, Mississippi. Kunstler even marched in some of the protests. Kunstler successfully argued that the law was archaic and unconstitutional and the case was dismissed.
In his summation before the U. S. Court of Appeals, Kunstler would create one of his trademarks: reciting poetry at the start of his summations. In addition to his unorthodox antics, Kunstler had a colorful appearance in court. After admission to the New York bar, Kunstler became a partner with his brother in their own law firm, working throughout the 1950's on marriage, estate, and business law, and taking on a few cases for the American Civil Liberties Union.
Later he became involved with the trial of the Chicago Seven, as the defendants came to be known. Representing Civil Activists Can Be Hazardous to One's Well-Being The suspects had come to the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago to protest the war in Vietnam. The proceedings were interrupted repeatedly by confrontations between Kunstler and U. S. District Court Judge Julius Jennings Hoffman.
Courtroom decorum suffered as the defendants, Kunstler, and other lawyers battled with Hoffman, who seemingly lost control of the proceedings on occasions.
One defendant, Abbie Hoffman (no relation to Judge Hoffman) would do handstands on his way into court, or pole vault over a court railing.
Another defendant, Bobby Seale, who was national chair of the Black Panthers, at one point during the trial was ordered by Judge Hoffman to be gagged, chained, and bound to the counsel table.
All defendants were acquitted of the most serious charge of conspiracy to incite a riot. Five were convicted of lesser charges, but those were dismissed on appeal. The charges were reversed two years later by the U. S. Court of Appeals, which ordered a new trial for Kunstler. Kunstler was convicted of two counts of contempt, but was not sentenced to prison.
Following the Chicago Seven trial, Kunstler said he felt he would sink into oblivion. But he was soon back in the national news in 1971 when rioting broke out at Attica State Prison in New York. Thirty-nine prisoners were massacred during five days of rioting, which Kunstler said was precipitated by inhumane treatment. Kunstler was called in as an intermediary and later filed lawsuits on behalf of prisoners.
Among his clients were defendants charged with flag burning (which, he successfully argued in front of the Supreme Court, constituted free speech), the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, and the assassination of Jewish Defense League leader Rabbi Meir Kahane - as well as prominent Mafia figures.
He had often been the target of abuse because of the clients he represented, but nothing compared to the threats and harassments he received for representing Islamic clients in 1993 and 1994. Kunstler, who was Jewish, was considered a traitor by some. During the trial, pickets paraded in front of Kunstler's home in Greenwich Village in Manhattan and windows were broken.
Kunstler wrote extensively, both legal texts and memoirs of his work. The Poet Kunstler, who became enamored with poetry while at Yale University, had many of his poems published.
(Like most things William Kunstler does, the poems in this...)
(The controversial lawyer looks back on his life and caree...)
(Poems deal with legal issues, controversial figures in Am...)
("None of today's sordid homicides could hold a candle, or...)
(A scandalous love affair which ended in double murder - w...)
(The original trial of Caryl Chessman)
In the 1960's he was special counsel for Martin Luther King, Jr. , and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.
"The sixties was my time of transformation. During this period and into the 1970 I changed from a liberal into a radical, " Kunstler wrote in My Life as a Radical Attorney.
"I metamorphosed. For more than 20 years, my representation of Black defendants has been motivated by one of my strongest beliefs: That our society is racist", Kunstler wrote in his autobiography.
Quotations:
"I was struck with the paradox of how quickly a sports idol can be caught up in a tragedy of immense proportions, "
"Of one thing I am certain, this will not be my last sonnet about the matter. "
"I enjoy the spotlight, as most humans do, but it's not my whole raison d'etre.
And that's never changed. "
The National Lawyers Guild, the American Civil Liberties Union, the Law Center for Constitutional Rights
In his summation before the U. S. Court of Appeals, Kunstler would create one of his trademarks: reciting poetry at the start of his summations. In addition to his unorthodox antics, Kunstler had a colorful appearance in court.
Quotes from others about the person
Jimmy Breslin said, "Dying is no big deal; the least of us can manage that.
The trick is how you live, and Mr. Bill Kunstler lived''.
Kunstler was married twice and had four children from the two marriages.