Who Were The Chicago 7 and What Happened to Them?
A Guide to Each Member of the Chicago 7 and What Happened to Them
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A Black Panther Party cofounder, Bobby Seale (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) was officially the eighth member of the group of men who were arrested on charges of conspiracy to incite a riot. Seale did, in fact, speak at the demonstrations at the DNC as a last-minute replacement for Eldridge Cleaver. During the trial, Judge Hoffman notoriously had Seale bound and gagged to prevent him from speaking out. Eventually, Seale was severed from the case and sentenced to four years, though both the contempt and conspiracy charges were dropped after a federal appeals court overturned Hoffman's decision. Seale was also tried for the 1969 murder of a Panther suspected of being a police informant, but the trial ended with a hung jury. He later ran for mayor of Oakland and has authored several books.