Davis's Lawyer Addresses Students, Discusses Blacks and Political Trials

The defense attorney for Angela Davis and H. Rap Brown addressed a group of black law students on "Political Trials and Black Defendants" last night in Lowell Lecture Hall.

"Criminal prosecution is used against a person perversely in order to silence him," Howard Moore Jr. said last night. "This tends to undermine his integrity in black politics and prevent a movement from building up around him."

Moore discussed political defendants, political trials and their relationship to the black liberation movement. He was introduced by Derrick A. Bell, professor of Law, as a "committed and unconventional lawyer."

Moore said that a political defendant is one who is a "political personality" even though he may be on trial for criminal actions.

He also said that political prisoners can be identified by the amount of pre-trial publicity they receive by the mass media. Because of this, Moore said, every black defendant "walks into court against public opinion."

He explained that a political trial was one where there was "no humanitarian restraint to returning a conviction."

"Prosecutors have to pretend to be fair because they are officers of the court," Moore said.

The investigative resources of the prosecution are far greater than the defense, Moore continued, "because they not only have their own labs but also those of the FBI."

Don't Trust Detectives

Moore further commented that private investigators can't be trusted, as most of them are biassed from previous work and connections with the prosecution's side of trials.

He accused prosecutors of "distorting precedents and statutes to find authority to support fabrications." He said that he doubted the fairness of many judges because of their middle-class backgrounds and because many of them are former prosecutors.

Moore concluded his remarks with a plea to black law students to work for the black community.

"Your brothers and sisters need you in the law schools to defend them in political trials," he said. "Without you, they can't get a fair shake."