Man in the Plastic Booth

When Adolf Eichmann was tried in Jerusalem nine years ago, he sat inside a bulletproof glass booth. The idea was to protect him from a possible assassin in the courtroom--and it inspired Actor Robert Shaw to write a successful play called The Man in the Glass Booth. Now American jurists are considering a similar booth, made of plastic. Here, however, the idea is to protect the court from the defendant.

In both the Chicago Seven trial (see THE LAW) and a hearing in Manhattan involving 13 Black Panthers, defendants who regard the proceedings as "a farce" have leaped up from the defense table shouting insults at the judges and witnesses. Such disruptions can make it virtually impossible to conduct a fair trial --thus, of course, fulfilling the defendants' angry prophecy. Members of the American Institute of Architects and the American Bar Association are discussing a soundproof plastic booth to be rigged with a telephone to the defense lawyer and a sound system enabling the defendant to hear the proceedings--but not be heard. The defendant would thus be reduced to pantomime protest. It sounds practical, but the larger question is what damage the judicial system will suffer if defendants in any numbers must be tried in plastic boxes.

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