Harvard Law Professors Say Courts Must Name Prosecutor

An independent Watergate prosecutor should be appointed by the courts and not by the president, members of the Law. School faculty said yesterday in response to Leon Jaworski's appointment to the post.

"Even assuming Jaworski was a very good man for the job, there would still be need for a Watergate prosecutor independent of the president," Albert M. Sacks, dean of the Law School, said.

Alan M. Dershowitz, professor of Criminal Law, said, "I think it's an outrage that Nixon has a role in appointing the man who might be prosecuting him. A prosecutor from another branch of government is needed."

Philip Heymann, professor of Law, also said that an independent prosecutor was needed. "There's no basis for adequate public confidence unless there's another prosecutor," he said.

Independent Prosecutor

Most of the faculty members said that the courts should be the ones to appoint the independent prosecutor. "A new prosecutor, in order to be constitutional, should be responsible to a court of law," Sacks said.

Charles R. Nesson '60, professor of Law, said he agreed that the independent prosecutor should be responsible to the judicial branch. "A court appointment would be the best and cleanest way to establish an independent prosecutor," he said.

Few of the professors knew Jaworski or could assess his abilities. "I don't know him from Adam," Nesson said.

"I only met him once, for a short time--I know no more about him than what I read in the papers," Sacks said.

Dershowitz, however, was not surprised at the appointment of Jaworski, a Houston trial lawyer. "He's just the kind of man I expected Nixon to nominate--he deals in compromises and exchanges of power. He doesn't deal in the high-principled law of a man like Archibald Cox," he said.

"He might be a very good lawyer for many other purposes, but for this job he's a terrible choice. He's incapable, in my estimation, of inspiring public confidence that he'd follow the trail wherever it might lead," Dershowitz added.

Several professors refused to comment because of related upcoming testimony before Congressional committees. Paul M. Bator, associate dean of the Law School, said he was going before the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday. "I feel it would be improper for me to be partisan on any of these issues," he said.

Paul A. Freund, Loeb University Professor, also refused to comment because of his Senate testimony next week on a bill that would create an independent prosecutor.