In the 1970's, Westchester Friends established a bail fund for prisoners, which is still being run by the Pre-Trial Services Institute.

In 1946, a bail fund was created by the CRC "to be used at the discretion of three trustees to gain the release of defendants arrested for political reasons."

During the hearing Hammett refused to provide the information the government wanted, specifically, the list of contributors to the bail fund, "people who might be sympathetic enough to harbor the fugitives."

In the same year the parish contributed $20,000 to the bail fund of Richard Moore, a Black Panther charged in a bombing plot.

Their bail fund was rapidly diminishing.

You're a trustee of that Communist bail fund, amounting to nearly a million dollars, and at great personal risk you are determined to keep the names of the contributors secret.

From the start, Ms. Olson received unabashed support from local liberals, including a longtime friend, Andy Dawkins, a Democratic state representative who donated money to her bail fund.

Mrs. Kaufman's clients included the bail fund as well as Mr. Hunton.

A bail fund, which would provide money for the release of low-risk, impoverished offenders, is also under consideration, he said.

Leaders of the CRC were called before a grand jury and asked to identify the donors who had contributed money to the bail fund.