RIGHTS UNITS BATTLE OVER ALABAMA CASE (Published 1978) (2024)

Three national civil rights organizations are moving toward an open courtroom fight over who should handle a wellpublicized Alabama rape case.

The case involves Tommy Lee Hines, a 26‐year‐old retarded black man who was convicted of raping a white woman. He was sentenced a month ago to 30 years in prison.

Mr. Hines was defended by Henry S. Mims of Huntsville, Ala., who was assisted by a staff lawyer for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, George E. Hairston.

‘Ineffective Assistance of Counsel’

U. W. Clemon, a lawyer from Birmingham, Ala., hired by the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund Inc. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, filed a motion for a new trial for Mr. Hines in the Circuit Court of Cullman County, Ala. last Monday on the ground of “ineffective assistance of counsel.” The defense fund was the legal arm of the N.A.A.C.P. until it broke with the association in 1959.

“Such a maneuver strikes us as extremely ill‐advised and unjustified by the trial record,” the N.A.A.C.P.'s executive board said yesterday in a public statement. “We deplore this development.”

Mr. Hairston said in an interview that RIGHTS UNITS BATTLE OVER ALABAMA CASE

Continued From Page Al the association would oppose the move “to replace” him and Mr. Mims “even it meant going into court on the side of the District Attorney” to oppose the granting of a new trial.

Mr. Hairston said the group would also seek a ruling by the ethics committee of the state bar association.

Mr. Mims could not be reached for comment, but Mr. Hairston said Mr. Mims was “contemplating a suit against Mr. Clemon, the L.D.F. and the S.C.L.C. based on interference with his right to fulfill his contract.”

Mr. Mims was the original lawyer on the case and had been hired and paid by the S.C.L.C., Mr. Hairston said.

Jack Greenburg, director‐counsel for the New York‐based L.D.F., said, “A comment would not be useful for the client, and I will not talk about this case at this time.”

Carol Parks, communications officer for the Atlanta‐based S.C.L.C., said that “the family of Mr. Hines” had requested a change of lawyers and that the conference had secured the services of both Mr. Clemon, who is also an Alabama state legislator, and Howard Moore, a lawyer from Oakland, Calif., who has represented Angela Davis and Julian Bond.

Miss Parks and Mr. Hairston agreed that the convicted man's retardation was too severe for him to choose his own lawyer. Mr. Hairston said Mr. Hines was considered legally incompetent by all the state authorities except the pol ice.

It could not be determined when the circuit court judge, Jack C. Riley, would consider Mr. Clemon's motion. The circuit clerk said yesterday that Judge Riley was out of town.

Mr. Hines had been charged with the rape of a railroad clerk last February. The trial, originally scheduled for Decatur, Ala., was moved to Cullman, Ala., after clashes between demonstrators organized by the S.C.L.C. and members of the Ku Klux Klan.

The defense contended Mr. Hines's retardation was so serious that he was not capable of the crime of which he had been accused. The defense pleaded not guilty and not guilty by reason of insanity until the final days of the trial, when the latter plea was dropped.

Observers of the civil rights movement in New York and in Alabama said that the conviction could be reversed by higher courts and that the reputation of the lawyer who handled the Hines appeal would be enhanced. Victories in cases such as this one, the observers said, are important to the fund raising efforts of each of the national civil rights groups.

The N.A.A.C.P. is a 69‐year‐old national organization with 1,700 chapters and more than 400,000 members. The L.D.F. is composed of staff and cooperating lawyers. The S.C.L.C., an organization of social activists, was founded by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.