Leonard Weinglass was the workhorse of the defense, tirelessly putting in long hours preparing for each day of testimony. Weinglass generally avoided the highly charged rhetoric of his co-counsel, Bill Kunstler. J. Anthony Lukas applauded Weinglass for, nearly alone among trial participants, maintaining "a semblance of decency." Nonetheless, Judge Hoffman found reason to sentence Weinglass (whose name he never seem to be able to get right, usually calling him "Weinstein") to twenty months in prison for contempt.
Weinglass has been involved in liberal and radical causes since his graduation from Yale Law School in 1958. He has been co-chair of the left-leaning National Lawyer's Guild. He has represented Pentagon Papers defendant Anthony Russo, Angela Davis, Jane Fonda, Bill and Emily Harris of the Symbionese Liberation Army (the group charged with the kidnapping of Patty Hearst), and Amy Carter, daughter of President Jimmy Carter, who in 1987 was charged with seizing a University of Massachusetts building in protest of on-campus recruitment by the CIA.
Weinglass has also traveled extensively to world troublespots and to the sites of trials of dissidents. Among the countries he has visited are Cuba, Vietnam, the West Bank, Iran (during the hostage crisis), El Salvador, Nicaragua, and China.
The heading on Weinglass's homepage and CV reads "Refuse and Resist!"