Rutgers Professor Fights Disbarment

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J.-A Rutgers University professor and civil rights activist is fighting disbarment for allegedly violating American Bar Association (ABA) rules by criticizing a trial while it was underway.

Lennox Hinds, a professor of criminal justice, in 1978 criticized the trial of Joanne Chesimard, who was accused and later convicted of murdering a New Jersey state trooper in East Brunswick.

While the court was in session, Hinds held a press conference to denounce the trial of Chesimard as a "legalized lynching" by a "kangaroo court." Hinds was not Chesimard's attorney but spoke on behalf of the National Alliance against Racist and Political Repression and the National Conference of Black Lawyers, of which he was director.

The Middlesex County Bar Association investigated the charges that Hinds broke ABA rules and still could recommend to the state supreme court that Hinds be disbarred.

Hinds filed suit in U.S. District Court in 1978, charging that the ABA was violating his constitutional right of free speech. A judge refused to take jurisdiction in the case, so Hinds is now appealing the case in the Third Court of Appeals in Philadelphia, which heard oral arguments one week ago.

The U.S. Department of Justice also is investigating Hinds because he was one of ten Americans to visit Tehran in July for a conference on American involvement in Iran. A New York judicial committee has recommended that Hinds not be allowed to practice law in that state because of his Iran trip and because of his comments on the Chesimard case.

Supporters of Hinds have formed a group in Middlesex called the Community Coalition to Protect Lennox Hinds. The coalition says the bar's actions against Hinds are racially motivated and would discourage attorneys from criticizing injustice in the courts.