when did attorney harry j mitchell die?

How long was Mitchell in jail?

The sentence was later reduced to one to four years by United States district court Judge John J. Sirica. Mitchell served only 19 months of his sentence at Federal Prison Camp, Montgomery (in Maxwell Air Force Base) in Montgomery, Alabama, a minimum-security prison, before being released on parole for medical reasons.

Why was Mitchell in prison?

Due to multiple crimes he committed in the Watergate affair, Mitchell was sentenced to prison in 1977 and served 19 months. As Attorney General, he was noted for personifying the "law-and-order" positions of the Nixon Administration, amid several high-profile anti-war demonstrations.

Why did Nixon order Mitchell to go slow on desegregation of schools in the South?

Near the beginning of his administration, Nixon had ordered Mitchell to go slow on desegregation of schools in the South as part of Nixon's " Southern Strategy ," which focused on gaining support from Southern voters. After being instructed by the federal courts that segregation was unconstitutional and that the executive branch was required to enforce the rulings of the courts, Mitchell began to comply, threatening to withhold federal funds from those school systems that were still segregated and threatening legal action against them.

What did Nixon tell the press about Martha Mitchell?

Nixon aides, in an effort to discredit her, told the press that she had a "drinking problem". Nixon was later to tell interviewer David Frost in 1977 that Martha was a distraction to John Mitchell, such that no one was minding the store, and "If it hadn't been for Martha Mitchell, there'd have been no Watergate.".

What did Mitchell do to suppress the threat of war?

He called for the use of "no-knock" warrants for police to enter homes, frisking suspects without a warrant, wiretapping, preventive detention, the use of federal troops to repress crime in the capital, a restructured Supreme Court, and a slowdown in school desegregation. "This country is going so far to the right you won't recognize it," he told a reporter.

What did Mitchell believe?

He advocated the use of wiretaps in national security cases without obtaining a court order ( United States v. U.S. District Court) and the right of police to employ the preventive detention of criminal suspects. He brought conspiracy charges against critics of the Vietnam War, likening them to brown shirts of the Nazi era in Germany.

Did Mitchell testify before the Watergate Committee?

In July 1973 Mitchell testified before the Senate Watergate Committee where he claimed he had no prior knowledge of the Watergate break in which was contradicted the testimony of others who appeared before the committee. He admitted that he was briefed on January 27, 1972, while he was the Attorney General, by G. Gordon Liddy on Operation Gemstone which proposed numerous illegal activities to support the reelection of President Nixon including the use of prostitutes, kidnapping and assaulting antiwar protestors. Mitchell testified he should have thrown Liddy "out of the window". Jeb Stuart Magruder and John Dean testified to the committee that Mitchell later approved electronic surveillance (i.e. bugging telephones) but did not approve of the other proposed activities.