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Patricia Hearst Trial Essay

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Patricia Hearst was kidnapped by a group of radicals who called themselves the Symbionese Liberation Army or SLA, on February 4, 1974. Hearst claimed that the SLA constantly put her through different types of torture, whether it was mental cruelty or rape. However, Hearst went through numerous trials to try and prove her innocence, but was ultimately found guilty. Patricia Hearst did receive a fair verdict in her trial because she had no proof that she was brainwashed or tortured, the FBI had surveillance footage of Hearst helping the SLA commit crimes, and audiotapes of Hearst admitting to join the SLA and that she was in love with the man that supposedly raped her. Hearst claimed that after she was kidnapped by the SLA from her apartment …show more content…

Hearst was shown on the bank’s surveillance holding an assault rifle and ordering bystanders to the floor, while providing cover to her fellow radicals (FBI). During Hearst’s trial her lawyer, F. Lee Bailey, tried to convince the jury that Hearst helped the SLA commit the crimes that she did because she was in fear of her life and that she suffered from Stockholm Syndrome, which would make her completely dependant on her captors (Toobin). Bailey also tried to claim that Hearst was never a free agent or a voluntary member of the SLA (Linder). However, another psychiatrist, Joel Fort, disproved Bailey’s theory of Hearst being in fear of her life and that Hearst did indeed join the SLA voluntary. Fort changed the jury’s thinking by saying that Patricia Hearst showed signs of radicalism at an early age even before her kidnapping, according to Fort, “Hearst was rebel in search of a cause even before her kidnapping”(Smith). Fort also pointed out to the jury that he thought it was incredible that in all of the time that Hearst was with the SLA not once did she try to escape and that a person who did not want to voluntarily be apart of a rebel organization would

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