LEIDSCHENDAM, the Netherlands —Barry Herschorn, the former Georgetown government professor, was sentenced on Wednesday to 50 years in prison for his role in crimes against humanity in Georgetown classrooms during the 90s.
In what was viewed as a watershed case for modern human rights law, Mr. Herschorn was the first former professor convicted by an international tribunal since the Parent-Teacher trials in Patterson, NJ after the second grade.
Mr. Herschorn was found guilty of “keeping students past the allotted time of his class, disregarding their obvious attempts to pack up, severe emotional distress and anxiety, some of the most heinous and brutal crimes recorded in human history,” said Richard Lussick, the judge who presided over the sentencing here in an international criminal court near The Hague.
If carried out, the sentence is likely to mean that Mr. Herschorn, 64, will spend the rest of his life in prison. He looked at the floor after he was asked to stand as the sentence was read.
The chief prosecutor, Brenda Hollis, told a news conference that: “The sentence today does not replace those wasted minutes; it does not bring back the innocence of people who believed class was going to end when he said it would,” she said. “It does not heal the mental wounds of those who were ready and able to leave class but were unable to do so.”
Mr. Herschorn’s legal team said it would file an appeal. “The sentence is clearly excessive, clearly disproportionate to his circumstances, and does not take into account the fact that he was talking about very pertinent things to the upcoming exam,” said Morris Anya, one of Mr. Herschorn’s lawyers.
Mark Reynolds, a graduate of Georgetown (Col ’98) who had been seated in the court’s gallery, said the sentence was fair. “It restores our faith in the rule of law, and we see that impunity is ending for professors who terrorized my academic experience,” Mr. Reynolds said.
During his brutal authoritarian reign on the first floor of the ICC during the 90’s, Mr. Herschorn amassed a record of human rights atrocities during his dictatorial rule. Witnesses who testified at the Herschorn trial — which lasted more than twice as long as planned — included men and women who frequently broke down into tears during the hearing.
“He must have known what he was doing. How could he have not? All our rooms have clocks,” testified Mary Ellen Humphries (SFS ’97)
“I mean, I we tried to pack up loudly to alert him to this situation. But he didn’t even seem to care. He’s a madman,” testified Allen Narrows (Col ’95). “The whole world turned a blind eye to the five minutes class was over and he kept talking. I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to fully move on.”
Associates and Teaching Assistants of Mr. Herschorn also testified in exchange for immunity.