The Red Army Faction, also known as the Baader–Meinhof Group or Baader–Meinhof Gang, was a West German far-left militant group founded in 1970 and active until 1998. The RAF described itself as a communist and anti-imperialist urban guerrilla group. It was engaged in armed resistance against what it considered a fascist state. Members of the RAF generally used the Marxist–Leninist term "faction" when they wrote in English. Early leadership included Andreas Baader, Ulrike Meinhof, Gudrun Ensslin, and Horst Mahler. The West German government considered the RAF a terrorist organization.
Judgment at Nuremberg is a 1961 American epic legal drama film directed and produced by Stanley Kramer, and written by Abby Mann. It features Spencer Tracy, Burt Lancaster, Richard Widmark, Maximilian Schell, Werner Klemperer, Marlene Dietrich, Judy Garland, William Shatner, and Montgomery Clift. Set in Nuremberg, West Germany, the film depicts a fictionalized version – with fictional characters – of the Judges' Trial of 1947, one of the twelve Nuremberg Military Tribunals conducted under the auspices of the U.S. military in the aftermath of World War II.
Sean Justin Penn is an American actor and film director. He is known for his intense leading man roles in film. Over his career, he has earned numerous accolades including two Academy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Award, as well as nominations for three BAFTA Film Awards. Penn received an Honorary César in 2015.
I Am Sam is a 2001 American drama film co-written and directed by Jessie Nelson. It stars Sean Penn, Michelle Pfeiffer, Dianne Wiest, Dakota Fanning, Elle Fanning, Richard Schiff, Loretta Devine and Laura Dern.
The University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School is the law school of the University of Pennsylvania, a private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Penn Carey Law offers the degrees of Juris Doctor (J.D.), Master of Laws (LL.M.), Master of Comparative Laws (LL.C.M.), Master in Law (M.L.), and Doctor of the Science of Law (S.J.D.).
Jury nullification, also known in the United Kingdom as jury equity or a perverse verdict, is when the jury in a criminal trial gives a verdict of not guilty even though they think a defendant has broken the law. The jury's reasons may include the belief that the law itself is unjust, that the prosecutor has misapplied the law in the defendant's case, that the punishment for breaking the law is too harsh, or general frustrations with the criminal justice system. Some juries have also refused to convict due to their own prejudices in favor of the defendant. Such verdicts are possible because a jury has an absolute right to return any verdict it chooses.
Casualties of War is a 1989 American war drama film directed by Brian De Palma and written by David Rabe, based primarily on an article written by Daniel Lang for The New Yorker in 1969, which was later published as a book. The film stars Michael J. Fox and Sean Penn and is based on the events of the 1966 incident on Hill 192 during the Vietnam War, in which a Vietnamese woman was kidnapped from her village by a squad of American soldiers, who raped and murdered her. For the film, all names and some details of the true story were altered.
Judgment in Berlin is a 1984 book by federal judge Herbert Jay Stern about a hijacking trial in the United States Court for Berlin in 1979, over which he presided.
The People's Court was a Sondergericht of Nazi Germany, set up outside the operations of the constitutional frame of law. Its headquarters were originally located in the former Prussian House of Lords in Berlin, later moved to the former Königliches Wilhelms-Gymnasium at Bellevuestrasse 15 in Potsdamer Platz.
Lufthansa Flight 181, a Boeing 737-230C jet airliner named Landshut, was hijacked on 13 October 1977 by four militants of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine while en route from Palma de Mallorca, Spain, to Frankfurt am Main, West Germany. The hijacking aimed to secure the release of eleven notorious Red Army Faction leaders held in West German prisons and two Palestinians held in Turkey. This event was part of the so-called German Autumn, intended to increase pressure on the West German government. The hijackers diverted the flight to several locations in a harrowing odyssey before ending in Mogadishu, Somalia, where the crisis concluded in the early morning hours of 18 October 1977 under the cover of darkness. The West German counter-terrorism unit GSG 9, with ground support from the Somali Armed Forces, stormed the aircraft, rescuing all 87 passengers and four crew members. Tragically, the captain of the flight was killed by the hijackers earlier in the ordeal.
The United States Court for Berlin was a United States Article II court that had jurisdiction over American-occupied Berlin. It was in existence from 1955 until the Two plus Four Treaty in 1990.
The Revolutionary Cells were a self-described "urban guerrilla" organisation that was active between 1973 and 1995. The West German Interior Ministry described it as one of West Germany's most dangerous leftist terrorist groups in the early 1980s. According to the office of the German Federal Prosecutor, the Revolutionary Cells claimed responsibility for 186 attacks, of which 40 were committed in West Berlin.
Roy Dana Call was an American film and television actor. He appeared in several films including 48 Hrs. (1982), Brewster's Millions (1985), At Close Range (1986), No Man's Land (1987), Colors (1988), Born on the Fourth of July (1989), Young Guns II (1990), State of Grace (1990), Waterworld (1995), Murder by Numbers (2002), Babel (2006), and Into the Wild (2007).
The Spy Who Came In from the Cold is a 1965 British spy film based on the 1963 novel of the same name by John le Carré. The film stars Richard Burton, Claire Bloom, and Oskar Werner. It was directed by Martin Ritt, and the screenplay was written by Paul Dehn and Guy Trosper.
Herbert Jay Stern is a trial lawyer, with a national practice in civil and criminal litigation, as well as mediation and arbitration. Earlier in his career, Stern served as a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey and as the United States Judge for Berlin.
Herbert Harrison Heyes was an American film actor. He appeared in nearly 100 films between 1915 and 1956, including the famed 1947 film Miracle on 34th Street, in which he played an ahistorical "Mr. Gimbel," owner of Gimbel's Department Store. He was born in Vader, Washington and died in North Hollywood, Los Angeles.
This page lists trials related to the September 11 attacks.
LOT Polish Airlines Flight 165 hijacking was the hijacking of a LOT Polish Airlines that occurred on 30 August 1978. The hijackers from East Germany (GDR) were seeking political asylum in West Germany (FRG). The plane landed safely, and the primary hijacker was tried and convicted by a West German jury in the United States Court for Berlin and sentenced to time served, the nine months he had already served during pretrial detention. This was the only case heard before the United States Court for Berlin.
"Judgment at Nuremberg" is an American television play broadcast live on April 16, 1959, as part of the CBS television series, Playhouse 90. It was a courtroom drama written by Abby Mann and directed by George Roy Hill that depicts the trial of four German judicial officials as part of the Nuremberg trials. Claude Rains starred as the presiding judge with Maximilian Schell as the defense attorney, Melvyn Douglas as the prosecutor, and Paul Lukas as the former German Minister of Justice.
