GENETIC HALL OF FAME
BRIAN BARRITT

Reprinted from SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE, July 14 (Bastille Day)

Writers Petition Swiss To Give Asylum To Leary
by Donovan Bess

Twenty-five prominent writers yesterday filed a petition with the Swiss government asking that it give asylum to Timothy Leary as a "literary refugee persecuted for his thoughts and writings" by United States authorities.

The writers -- most of whom live in the Bay Area -- include Allen Ginsberg, Herbert Gold, Laura Huxley, Anais Nin, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Robert Creeley, Alan Watts, Howard Becker, Kenneth Rexroth, Michael McClure and Ken Kesey.

The eight-page petition was delivered to the Swiss consulate here yesterday. Copies also were delivered to the U.S. Departments of Justice and State in Washington.

In New York City last night, playwright Arthur Miller and other literary leaders sent a cable to the Swiss Ministry of Justice in Zurich urging that Leary be given asylum "as an act of compassion. "

The 51-year-old proponent of marijuana and psychedelic drugs fled overseas after escaping from a California prison and is being held without charges in Switzerland awaiting extradition requested by the California Department of Corrections.

Early last year Leary was sentenced to prison after an Orange county jury found him guilty of possession of a half ounce of marijuana.

The writers' petition cites the fact that the judge in this case, Byron K. McMillan, denied bail to the onetime Harvard psychology professor after describing him as "an insidious and detrimental influence on society" and "a pleasure-seeking, irresponsible Madison Avenue advocate of the free use of LSD and marijuana.

The writers argued that Leary has been prosecuted for an underlying motive, "namely, essays and speeches on drug usage theory."

Government plans to put him back in prison, the petition argues, rise "merely from differences of opinion on public philosophy involving drug use, a scientific matter now being debated in professional circles."

"At stake in the case," says the petition, " ... is Dr. Leary's freedom to manifest his thoughts in the form of poems, psychological commentaries, dialogues, and essays of a literary nature ..."

The other persons who signed the petition were Ted Berrigan, Margo Patterson Doss, Dr. John Doss, Lewis MacAdams, Paul Krassner, Lenore Kandel, Diane di Prima, Philip Lamantia, Don Allen, Michael Aldrich, Jan Herman, Andrew Hoyem, Phillip Whalen and Gavin Arthur.

The cable to Zurich last night from New York was sent on behalf of the 100 American members of the International P.E.N. (Poets, Essayists, Novelists) Club. It was signed by the president of its American chapter, Thomas Fleming, by Miller, a former chapter president, and by David Dempsey, a member of the P.E.N. board.

"As American writers we are disturbed at the way Dr. Leary's writings have been cited as evidence in his trial," the cable said. It pleaded with the Swiss to give the psychologist the kind of sanctuary accorded in the past to various victims of persecution.

© Chronicle Publishing Co., 1978

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