The Archives

摘要

After 39 days of "crackling...maudlin...and bewildering testimony, the most sensational trial of the television era" was over. In February 1974, Patty Hearst, 19, granddaughter of media mogul William Randolph Hearst, had been kidnapped by the Symbionese Liberation Army That April, she was caught on tape participating in a bank robbery. Her defense argued coercion and duress; the jury disagreed, finding her guilty on all counts. Her sentence of 35 years put to rest any notion that "her famous name and odd crime" could help her in court. In the end, President Jimmy Carter commuted her sentence after 22 months served.