Arkansas State Press

Defense Counsel For Trenton Six Thrown Out

With Civil Rights Congress attorneys in the Trenton Six case on the verge of producing new witnesses and evidence which would have left "nothing but the crude frame-up", Judge Charles P. Hutchinson today threw three of the four CRC lawyers out of the case and simultaneously set January 9, 1950 as the date for the re-trial.

Collis English, spokesman for three of the framed Trenton Six, was quoted by George Marshall, National Chairman of CRC, who visited the men in prison a few hours later, as saying, "We don't trust a state-appointed lawyer. We want our CRC lawyers."

Judge Hutchinson's original conduct of the trial was called "tainted with error" by the New Jersey State Supreme Court when it threw out the first conviction and ordered a re-trial. The six, all Negroes, had originally been sentenced to death in the electric chair, following a defense by court-appointed lawyers.

John Rogge, former Asst. Attorney General of the United States and one of the three CRC lawyers, declared:

"Were we touching a nerve in asking for the dissenting police report and other documents and See COUNSEL—page five.

Counsel-

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proof of the innocence of the Trenton Six?

"We were on the verge of uncovering in open court so much of the crude frame-up that there would have been nothing left the case. Is that why the court brushed aside our motion, refused to hear our witnesses?

"Is that why on this day Judge Hutchinson retaliated by throwing us out of the case, thus depriving the men of their chosen counsel and simultaneously setting a trial date for three weeks hence?

SP