Their first lawyers were appointed by the court. Stephen Roddy was a real estate lawyer who had never tried a criminal case, and whose real estate practice had gone bankrupt because he was an alcoholic, and Milo Moody was a seventy year old retiree who hadn’t tried a case in 20 years.
At the retrial after the Supreme Court overturned the guilty verdicts on the grounds that they had been denied competent counsel, the US Commuinist Party hired Samuel Leibowitz to serve as the lead defense attorney. Leibowitz was a New York criminal attorney who had secured an astonishing record of seventy-seven acquittals and one hung jury in seventy-eight murder trials. Joseph Brodsky, the ILD’s chief attorney, was selected to assist Leibowitz.
The NAACP attempted to hire Clarence Darrow to represent them, but they didn’t get involved until late in the trial, and the "boys" chose to stick with the Communist Party.
Their first lawyers were appointed by the court. Stephen Roddy was a real estate lawyer who had never tried a criminal case, and whose real estate practice had gone bankrupt because he was an alcoholic, and Milo Moody was a seventy year old retiree who hadn’t tried a case in 20 years.
At the retrial after the Supreme Court overturned the guilty verdicts on the grounds that they had been denied competent counsel, the US Commuinist Party hired Samuel Leibowitz to serve as the lead defense attorney. Leibowitz was a New York criminal attorney who had secured an astonishing record of seventy-seven acquittals and one hung jury in seventy-eight murder trials. Joseph Brodsky, the ILD’s chief attorney, was selected to assist Leibowitz.
The NAACP attempted to hire Clarence Darrow to represent them, but they didn’t get involved until late in the trial, and the "boys" chose to stick with the Communist Party.
Richard