Prosecution Fights Manson In Motion for New Attorney
Friday, June 5th, 1970
LOS ANGELES, Jun. 5 – The prosecution in the Gary Hinman murder case yesterday opposed a substitution of attorneys for cult leader Charles Manson.
Superior Court Judge George M. Dell continued the substitution motion until June 10 when prosecutors will seek a full hearing into the matter.
Manson, 35, is one of three defendants charged with the fatal stabbing of Hinman, 34, last July 27.
Manson is also accused in the murders last August of actress Sharon Tate and six others.
In yesterday’s proceedings Manson asked that Van Nuys Atty. I. A. Kanarek be substituted for Manson’s present lawyer in the Hinman case, Richard Walton.
However, Dep. Dist. Atty. Burton Katz filed a motion in Kanarek’s substitution.
The motion said the prosecution intends:
“To offer oral and documentary evidence that Mr. Kanarek, in his representation of various defendants in previous cases, has consistently and deliberately engaged in extremely dilatory, obstructionist tactics, calculated and designed to prolong the respective trials interminably and thereby thwart the proper administration of justice to all parties concerned, and to effect prejudicial and reversible error at the trial proceedings.”
Katz explained to newsmen the prosecution has two responsibilities.
“These are to prosecute vigorously, but fairly; and to insure the defendant a fair trial in spite of himself,” the deputy district attorney said.
Katz said his motion on Kanarek concerns Manson’s right to a fair trial.
The hearing on June 10 will be before Superior Court Judge Charles H. Older, who is now scheduled to try the Tate-LaBianca case on June 15.
Last Monday, Judge Older granted Manson’s request that Kanarek represent him in the Tate-LaBianca trial.
However, if Judge Older rules that Kanarek should not be substituted for Walton in the Hinman case, it may affect his ruling allowing Kanarek into the Tate-LaBianca case.
Kanarek called Katz’s allegations “merely a bunch of unverified conclusions.”
Also scheduled for June 10 before Judge Older is a motion by Kanarek to have one of Manson’s codefendants in the Tate-LaBianca case examined by a psychiatrist.
The codefendant, Mrs. Linda Kasabian, 20, is expected to testify for the prosecution in exchange for immunity.
In addition to Manson, five members of his clan are accused of the Tate-LaBianca slayings. One of these is Miss Susan Denice Atkins, 21, who is also charged with Hinman’s murder.
The third defendant in the Hinman case is Bruce Davis, 27, who has not yet been taken into custody although a warrant for his arrest is outstanding.
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