Patrick Murfin: How I Became an All Expense Guest of Uncle Sam — The Trial, Part II

In the last episode….

The Prosecutor called his first witness, the Clerk of my local Draft Board in Skokie.

He asked for a detailed history of my registration and history.  Of course, that included the episode of the returned draft card and the letter from me requesting a new one.

He covered my student deferment and asked if I still had any deferment.  The answer was no.

“So, Mr. Murfin was lawfully subject to the draft when he received his induction notice?”

Yes, came the reply.

O.K., I figured this is where we would make our case.  The draft and resistance councilors at the American Friends Service Committee had discovered that I was removed from the eligibility pool for over a year while the FBI assembled that thick file on the prosecution table, and had then returned me to the pool with my “window of eligibility” clock set back to the date I was removed.  And they never informed me that my eligibility was “suspended.”

Based on that, the Quakers believed, I could argue that I refused induction in good faith on the grounds that I believed my eligibility had lapsed.

In the halls of justice….

 

I had informed my lawyer, Bellow, about this in our one brief consultation and provided him documents from the Service Committee and even given him their phone number for further consultation.  I expected him to rise and ask the Clerk the critical questions.

Instead he rose and simply said, “The Defense has no questions, Your Honor.”  The witness was dismissed.

The prosecution brought two more witnesses, one of the NCOs who witnessed my actual refusal to step forward to accept induction, and one of the FBI agents who arrested me that day.  Bellow had no questions for them.  Neither was on the stand for five minutes.

With that, the Prosecution rested.  I figured maybe Bellow planned to call me and get the eligibility issue out that way.  “The Defense has no witnesses, Your Honor.”

I was now in a state of shock.

The Defense got to make the first closing argument.  Bellow finally stood up and had something to say.  “I met this young man and found him charming and articulate.”

Charming and articulate?

“He comes from a good home and his father was a decorated hero of the Second World War.  He is idealistic.  Young men are idealistic.”

Justice is a joke….

 

He smiled warmly at the judge as if the two of them were together on some secret.  And then he sat down.

Our entire defense was that I was a nice, naïve young man.

The Prosecutor got in his last lick.  He painted a scornful portrait of a dangerous subversive.  That was it. The trial was over in about a half an hour.

The judge announced that he would retire to his chambers to consider his verdict, but instructed us to stay close. As near as I could tell, “considering the verdict” consisted of taking a leak.  We were hardly out of the courtroom and I was still trying to roll a Prince Albert cigarette with shaky hands when the Bailiff called us back.

I stood in front of the judge with my attorney on one side and my girlfriend, Cecelia, who for some reason was allowed to join us, on the other.

“I find the Defendant, Patrick Mills Murfin guilty as charged…”

I squeezed Cecelia’s hand.

“At this point,” Judge Perry said, “we usually release the prisoner on bail pending a pre-sentencing investigation into his character and chances of rehabilitation.  That will not be necessary in this case.  We know what kind of young man this is.”

He waved at that damn FBI file.

“I have read the documents you filled out at your induction and was shocked by your disrespect.  This is no laughing matter, as you are about to find out.  I sentence the Defendant to 36 months of confinement in a Federal Correctional facility.”

I think my knees may have actually buckled.  The Judge did allow me to be released on my own recognizance for two weeks to, “get your affairs in order.”

He stood up and left the bench.  It was over.

Did I mention it was St. Patrick’s Day?  My 24^th birthday.

Editor’s Note: Patrick‘s last post for The Third City was The Trial, Part I….

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