An Interview with Conscientious Objector, Douglas Rippey

Charles Amirkhanian talks with a long time friend, Douglas Rippey, who was scheduled to go on trial in Fresno, California on January 22, 1970 on charges of refusing induction into the military. This was the first trial of a conscientious objector in Fresno to receive widespread community exposure and support. Pretrial motions challenging the constitutionality of the draft law, legality of war in general and the Vietnam War in particular, were denied by Federal Judge M. D. Crocker. Rippey’s attorney was Francis Heisler of Carmel, who also represented another Fresno native, Dave Harris.