Biography
Michael Slaski was one of the D.C. Nine, who entered Dow Chemical’s Washington offices on March 22, 1969 and damaged files and equipment with blood to protest the company’s manufacture of napalm. Police arrested the group at the scene. They spent one week in the D.C. jail while fasting and posted bond on March 29. A jury convicted Michael Slaski on February 11, 1970, and sentencing followed on May 6. The U.S. Court of Appeals reversed the convictions and ordered a new trial on June 30, 1972.
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Quicksilver Times, February 20–March 2, 1970, reported that Judge John Pratt ordered a 90-day psychiatric observation of Slaski at Saint Elizabeths Hospital after a February 6 courtroom confrontation. The newspaper also reported that a court-appointed psychiatrist found Slaski stable after an interview and that Pratt rescinded the commitment order. This is recorded as the newspaper's account of an order that was withdrawn; it does not establish an actual psychiatric admission or 90 days of completed hospital confinement.
