Staged Reading: The Tryal of John Peter Zenger, by Michael E Tigar CANCELLED

The Printing Museum presents a staged reading of The Tryal of John Peter Zenger, which dramatizes one of the most important legal cases in American history. September 17 at 7pm.

On November 17, 1734, John Peter Zenger was arrested on charges of seditious libel based on articles he had printed in the New York Weekly Journal calling into question actions by the Colonial Governor. In August, 1735, his trial ended with a jury finding him not guilty on the unprecedented basis that if what had been printed was true, it could not be considered libel.

While the Zenger case did not establish legal precedent in seditious libel or freedom of the press, it greatly influenced how people thought about these subjects and led, many decades later, to the protections embodied in the Unites States Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the Sedition Act of 1798.

The Tryal of John Peter Zenger was written by noted defense attorney Michael E. Tigar in 1986 for presentation at the Annual Meeting of the American Bar Association in New York.

During his career, Tigar has been acting professor of law at UCLA, Joseph D. Jamail Chair in Law at the University of Texas, and holder of an endowed professorship at Washington College of Law, where he is professor emeritus. He is the author or editor of more than a dozen books, including Thinking About Terrorism: The Threat to Civil Liberties in Times of National Emergency, Fighting Injustice and Law and the Rise of Capitalism (2d ed.). He has also written three plays and dozens of law review articles.

The play will be performed by a cast with members of the Houston Bar Association and the American Inns of Court, a professional development organization for the legal profession.