On Law Day 2011, we are invited to address the topic of “The Legacy of John Adams, from Boston to Guantánamo,” with a focus on due process and defending the rights of the accused.
In March of 1770, while the Massachusetts Bay colony was in the infancy of its efforts to assert independence from British rule, there was a street confrontation that resulted in British soldiers killing five civilians. The event is commonly referred to as the Boston Massacre, and the civilian deaths fueled the hatred brewing throughout the colonies about the tyranny of British rule.
