ACLU of Ohio Kent State Project records

The American Civil Liberties Union, founded in 1920, works to defend the individual rights guaranteed by the Constitution and laws of the United States. While local ACLU chapters formed as early as 1921, a statewide Ohio ACLU affiliate was not formed until 1951. The statewide group remained a relatively small, unincorporated grassroots organization over the next two decades. The organization drew its influence as much from its local chapters as from its national and state groups.

Benson Wolman had just been hired as the state organization's executive director when four students were killed by the National Guard at Kent State University on May 4th, 1970. The National Guard had been called to the Kent campus to disperse a protest against Nixon's incursion into Cambodia. At 12:24 pm, a group of Guardsman turned together towards the students and fired about 60 rounds into the crowd. Four students were killed and nine others were disabled or injured. Twenty-nine guards admitted firing.

Within days of the deaths of Sandra Scheuer, Jeffrey Miller, Allison Krause, and William Schroeder, the Kent Chapter of the ACLU deployed volunteers to interview witnesses about possible civil liberties violations that may have taken place before, during and after the May 4th disturbance. The national ACLU and Ohio affiliate joined together to form the Kent State Project, not just to redress the constitutional violations suffered by the victims of the shootings, but also those experienced by other students and community members as a result of the disturbance. The United Methodist Church also provided support and funds for the case. For instance, the ACLU intervened in the following situations where constitutional rights were violated:

At the same time, the national ACLU and the Ohio affiliate offered legal representation to the victims. Sarah and Martin Scheuer, the parents of Sandra Scheuer, retained the ACLU as legal counsel, and the case became captioned Scheuer v. Rhodes (James Rhodes was Ohio's governor at the time). Other victims subsequently retained private attorneys, including the Krause family.

In the years that followed a number of investigations, grand juries and trials were undertaken, none of which resulted in a determination of accountability for the shootings. Attorneys for the Guardsmen argued that the individual Guardsmen were personally immune from civil charges because they were acting in their capacity as state officials. The attorneys for the families argued, however, that the Guardsmen had violated the victims' constitutional rights by depriving them of their due process rights: in essence, that they were killed or injured by government officials without being charged with or convicted of any crime. The case Scheuer v. Rhodes reached the U.S. Supreme Court, which decided that the Guardsmen could be sued as individuals. A victory in Scheuer v. Rhodes turned out to be a pivotal legal milestone, for it allowed a civil suit for damages against the National Guardsmen to go forward.

The pressure to pursue redress in a civil suit heightened when the National Guardsmen were exonerated in a criminal trial, U.S. v. Shafer, in 1974. The U.S. Supreme Court decision in Scheuer v. Rhodes that same year allowed the families to pursue a civil suit. A district court consolidated the families' lawsuits, and the merged case, captioned Krause v. Rhodes, reached trial in the spring of 1975. ACLU attorneys joined with the private attorneys to argue wrongful death and injury. A jury found in favor of the Guardsmen, and the victims and their attorneys appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court arguing that a number of procedural and jury instruction errors prevented a fair trial. The Supreme Court acknowledged the errors, and sent the case back for retrial. The ACLU agreed to take on the appeal of this decision, and the trial began in late December 1978. The case was argued by ACLU attorney Sanford J. Rosen. After only a few days in court, the parties agreed to a settlement, in which the Guardsmen agreed to sign a "statement of regret," and $675,000 in damages was distributed among the victims and their families. Attorneys' fees were also awarded.

The settlement was controversial. Some felt a better resolution could have been reached, or that allowing the trial to reach a jury again could have produced a finding against the Guardsmen, while others felt that the settlement closed the door on a tragic time in our nation's history. In the words of the family in the statement they issued after the settlement was reached: "The State of Ohio although protected by the doctrine of sovereign immunity and consequently not legally responsible in a technical sense, has now recognized its responsibility by paying a substantial amount of money in damages for the injuries and deaths caused by the shootings."