Library:In the Spirit of Stonewall/Heavy police repression in Saxe trial

Heavy police repression in Saxe trial

Boston, September 21, 1976

Ten jurors have been selected so far as the Boston trial of Susan Saxe moves into its second week. Saxe, who has been held since August under tight security in the Suffolk County courthouse, is transported to the courtroom each day under heavy guard.

The State has been building its case against Saxe by using the full force of the media to present this courageous woman as a criminal, to demean her anti-war commitment, and to slander her feminist politics and lesbian identity.

She faces charges stemming from a 1970 bank robbery in which a policeman was killed. Although accused only of participation in the robbery, under the Massachusetts felony murder law, she is charged with first degree murder, which could result in an automatic life sentence if she is convicted.

Millions of dollars have been spent so far on the barrage of negative publicity and on so-called security measure, which include building special plywood tunnels leading straight into the courtroom, as well as sealing off the entire floor of the courtroom where the trial is taking place.

Saxe has been kept in special quarters, isolated from other prisoners, forbidden even to talk to her guards.

Nevertheless, Saxe remains strong, and support for her case continues to grow. Over 75 demonstrators, mostly women wearing "Free Susan Saxe" T-shirts, formed a picketline outside the courtroom on September 15, the first day of her trial. Sheriff's deputies tried to expel the women from the area on the pretext that their shirts violated a "state law prohibiting posters or picket signs in front of a courthouse."

Supporters and members of the press were searched in the first floor of the courthouse and again on the ninth floor, where extra court officers, locked doors, and an airport metal detector were in operation.