Ira Einhorn Trial: 1993

Defendant: Ira Einhorn
Crime Charged: Murder
Chief Defense Lawyer: Norris E. Gelman
Chief Prosecutors: Lynne Abraham, Joel Rosen
Judge: Juanita Kidd Stout
Place: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Date of Trial: September 1993
Verdict: Guilty
Sentence: Life imprisonment

SIGNIFICANCE: Philadelphia prosecutors took the unusual step of trying Ira Einhorn in absentia more than 12 years after he had jumped bail and fled the country. Located in France some four years after being convicted, Ira Einhorn successfully resisted extradition until July 2001.

In 1979, Ira Einhorn had held a unique place in the Philadelphia civic community for several years. A self-proclaimed guru of the counter culture movement of the 1960s, he had managed, as the movement faded, to avoid becoming marginalized. Without compromising his commitment to nonviolence, sexual liberation, drug experimentation, and the other trappings of the hippie lifestyle, he had become accepted by a wide spectrum of society's leaders. He worked tirelessly as an organizer, facilitator, speaker, and consultant of sorts, and took great pride in the international network of correspondents he had cultivated. The movements and causes that he supported were an eclectic mix of environmentalism, futurism, the paranormal, and the occult, laced with conspiracy theories. He was a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, had done some graduate work and teaching, and his credentials and reputation were enough to earn him a prestigious fellowship at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University in 1976-77.