William Kunstler (1919-1995) was one of the best known civil rights attorneys in the United States. His most famous trial was his defense of the Chicago Seven who were charged with conspiracy to commit a riot at the 1968 Democratic National Convention.

William Kunstler was one of the country's best known and most reviled radical lawyers, defending clients whom most attorneys shunned. He was revered by supporters and condemned by critics. His clients included civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., mafia don John Gotti, and a terrorist accused in the bombing of the World Trade Center in New York City. Kunstler's most famous trial was the one in which seven people--the Chicago Seven, as they came to be known--were charged with conspiracy to commit a riot at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Illinois.

Kunstler was born in New York City, the son of a proctologist, Monroe Bradford...