Utah Bar Association

Hellraisers Journal: Charges Against Joe Hill's Attorney Enumerated in Petition for Disbarment

The cause I stand for, that of a fair and honest trial,
is worth more than any human life-
much more than mine.
-Joe Hill

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Thursday January 6, 1916
Salt Lake City, Utah - Charges Against Judge Hilton Enumerated

The Ogden Standard of December 22nd, which announced that a disbarment complaint had been filed against Joe Hill's attorney, Judge Orrin N. Hilton, enumerated the charges filed against him:

HILTON DISBARMENT COMPLAINT HAS BEEN FILED
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Salt Lake, Dec. 22....
Orrin N Hilton.jpg

Charges Detailed.

In conclusion the petition for disbarment of Hilton says:

The grievance committee of the State Bar association of Utah accuses the said Orrin N. Hilton of having in all the premises failed in his duty, as prescribed by his oath of office.

1. To support the laws of the state of Utah, but, on the contrary, had falsely and maliciously imputed their origin, existence and administration to a power unacknowledged and unknown to the constitution, with the intent to bring them into disrepute and contempt in this and other states of the United States.

2. That he has failed to maintain the respect due to the courts of justice and judicial officers, in that he has denounced the courts and the judges thereof-speaking as one who had absolute knowledge in the premises to the people of this and other states-as being subservient to and controlled by a religious power foreign to the law and the constitution in the exercise of their judicial duties in the judgments pronounced in causes involving the lives and liberties of the people; and in exhibiting toward the judges and the courts a contemptuous disregard of their authority, and in imputing to them dishonorable and unlawful motives and acts, all tending to bring the administration of justice into disrepute, and tending to lessen the regard and the respect of the people for judicial tribunal.

Hellraisers Journal: Judge Orrin N. Hilton, Attorney for Joe Hill, Facing Disbarment in Utah

The cause I stand for, that of a fair and honest trial,
is worth more than any human life-
much more than mine.
-Joe Hill

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Wednesday January 5, 1916
Salt Lake City, Utah - Disbarment Proceedings Begun Against Judge Hilton

From The Ogden Standard of December 22nd, comes news of a recent development in what passes for the practice of Law in the Pursuit of Justice in the state of Utah:

HILTON DISBARMENT COMPLAINT HAS BEEN FILED
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Orrin N Hilton.jpg

Salt Lake, Dec. 22.-Disbarment proceedings against O. N. Hilton, the Denver lawyer, because of attacks made upon Utah justice and integrity at the Joe Hillstrom funeral in Chicago, were formally instituted in the supreme court of the state yesterday by the Utah State Bar association.

The grievance committee of the bar association filed with the supreme court information charging the Denver lawyer with unprofessional and immoral conduct in violation of his oath and obligations as an attorney practicing in Utah courts. The petition asks that Hilton be cited to appear before the supreme court and answer why he should not be barred from practicing in the Utah courts.

The complaint is signed by C. S. Varian, chairman, and A. L. Hoppaugh and Frank K. Nebeker, comprising the grievance committee, and countersigned by Herbert R. MacMillan as president of the Utah State Bar association.

The bar association, in its formal complaint, quotes from the address at the Hillstrom funeral in Chicago, where in the lawyer charged that the influences of the Mormon church sent Hillstrom to the expiation of a crime for which he was not proved guilty and wherein he attacked Governor Spry and the Utah supreme court. Hilton was admitted to practice here in the supreme court in 1912. It also quotes from other utterances of Hilton in connection with the case....

[Photograph added.]

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