Murry Testifies Today On Chambers' Mental Condition

NEW YORK, Jan 5. Docter Alexander 11 Murry '15, lecturer on Clinical Psychology, will testify as a defense witness in the perjury trial of Alger Hiss LL.B. '29, when Claude B. Cross, LL.B. '20, Hiss attorney, calls the faculty member to the stand tomorrow in U.S. District Court.

Cross is expected to ask Murray if, on the basis of Whittaker Chambers' previous testimony and Chambers' background, the psychologist "has any opinion as to the mental condition of Chambers."

Appears in Court

Murray sat in court today while Cross outlined the story of Chambers' charges to Dr. Carl O. Binger '10, member of the College Overseers' Visiting Committee to the Social Relations Department. At Cross' suggestion, Murry left the courtroom during Binger's testimony.

Federal prosecutor Thomas F. Murphy has opposed the admission of psychiatric testimony in trial, but the bench ruled such testimony valid today.

Earlier in the day, Murphy completed his cross-examination of William L. Marbury LL.B. '24, a member of the Harvard Corporation. Murbury, who is Hiss's attorney in the latter's libel action against Chambers conceded under questioning that former Secretary of War Robert P. Patterson LL.B. '15 had told him in 1947 that Hiss was a Communist.