Lawyers Study Acquittal of Kamin To Determine Action in Furry Trial

Lawyers for Wendell H. Furry, associate professor of Physics, and the government were trying yesterday to determine what effect Judge Bailey Aldrich's decision acquitting Leon J. Kamin '48 would have on Furry's pending trial.

Meanwhile Sen. McCarthy called the acquittal of Kamin a "ridiculous" decision by a judge who, he said, "should have disqualified himself."

"It is ridiculous to the point of being ludicrous," McCarthy told reporters in Washington. He said Aldrich "should have disqualified himself since he was a member of the Board of Overseers of Harvard University and Kamin was a Harvard professor."

"The decision," McCarthy said, "was a foregone conclusion when the judge kicked out the jury when they heard some spectator in the hall cheering me."

He voiced vigorous disagreement with Aldrich's finding. McCarthy said the subcommittee had "not only the right but the obligation" to conduct the inquiry.

There is a definite possibility that Furry, who faces a 10-count indictment for contempt of Congress, may never come to trial since Judge Bailey Aldrich's acquittal decision apparently covers the entire investigation into "subversion and espionage" in defense plants, for which Furry, as well as Kamin, was called.

Both Gerald A. Berlin, Furry's counsel, and U.S. Attorney Anthony Julian said yesterday they were studying Judge Aldrich's judgment "very carefully."

Both Furry and Kamin have been involved in a legal bout with Congressional investigating committees for nearly three years. They cited the Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination in 1953 appearances before the Jenner and Velde committees, but they were censured by the University for employing a tactic that might indicate guilt of a crime.

When they appeared at the same Boston hearing of Senator McCarthy's Investigations Subcommittee, they abandoned the privilege, and talked about their own activities, but refused to testify about former Communist associates.

Their lawyers jointly conducted a fight last spring to quash the contempt indictments. Judge Aldrich, however, rejected the defense arguments as "premature" and ordered a trial where the questions could be "viewed in their full perspective."