Judge Richard Posner Will Oversee the (Re) Trial of Socrates
By: This seems like it could be the legal and philosophical event of the year. Some of our leading legal lights are going to re-try Socrates at the end of January.
From the website of National Hellenic Museum:
The most significant legal appeal in nearly 2,500 years will take place at the National Hellenic Museum on Thursday, January 31, 2013 at 6:00 p.m., when we will re-try the biggest freedom of speech case of all times.
Judge Richard A. Posner presiding, William J. Bauer, formerChief Judge of the Court of Appeals, and Anna Demacopoulos, Circuit CourtJudge, and a jury of twelve distinguished citizens of Chicago, will decide the validity of these charges, admittedly of little interest to the defenda thimself!
As a member of the audience, you will hear arguments by some of the country's foremost legal minds. Socrates will be defended by Dan Webb (Winston & Strawn) and RobertA. Clifford (Clifford Law Offices). Counsel for the City of Athens, former U.S.Attorney Pat Fitzgerald (Skadden, Arps) and former prosecutor Patrick M.Collins (Perkins Coie), will attempt to shed light on the age-old question: why must Athens, the birthplace of democracy, put to death a 70-year-old philosopher who exercised the fundamental right of freedom of speech?
Of course, Socrates himself famously submitted to the verdict and made no attempt to appeal. When asked to propose his own sentence, he intentionally outraged his fellow Athenians by proposing that they compensate him for what he had done. So perhaps Socrates himself wasn't entirely convinced of his innocence.
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