Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

(Ohio) After the 1970 C ambodia invasion , when a re-energized V ietnam antiwar movement swept colleges, Ohio national guardsmen were sent to keep order at Kent State University, where a campus building had been burned. On 4 May, after being stoned by protesters, guardsmen fired into a crowd and killed four students. A grand jury indicted 25 students or faculty associated with the protests for inciting a riot, but all were acquitted. An indictment for murder was made against eight guardsmen, but they were acquitted on 8 November 1974 in Cleveland for lack of evidence that they had acted with premeditation. A lawsuit asking for damages of $46,000,000 was filed against Governor James Rhodes, Kent State President Robert White, and 27 guardsmen, by 13 plaintiffs, but all defendants were acquitted on 27 August 1975 at Cleveland. A second civil-damage suit was filed against the state of Ohio, and was settled out of court on 4 January 1979 for $675,000 in damages. ... log in or subscribe to read full text