H. Louis Nichols died last weekend at age 94. I didn’t give it a great deal of thought until Eric Turkewitz sent me an email asking whether Nichols engaged in improper solicitation. Turk, as every half-awake lawyer knows, runs the New York Personal Injury Law Blog.
Nichols was President of the Dallas County Bar Association. On November 23, 1963, he paid a visit to the jail to meet the man who was arrested the day before for the murder of President John F. Kennedy.
From the Dallas Morning News (the newspaper favored by half-awake lawyers):
By 2 p.m. Saturday, Mr. Nichols began receiving calls from Dallas attorneys concerned that Oswald did not have an attorney. Esteemed law school deans from “back East” were calling to express concern that only a legal backwater would deny an attorney to a murder suspect, Mr. Nichols’ friends told him.
The situation was puzzling. Mr. Nichols was a civil lawyer unfamiliar with criminal law. Oswald, who was indigent, couldn’t pay a lawyer. In 1963, criminal suspects in Texas had no right to a court-appointed lawyer before they were indicted.
Still, Mr. Nichols concluded that even a pariah like Oswald deserved representation. And it was up to him as bar association president to see if the accused killer wanted a lawyer. So, Mr. Nichols cleaned up, got dressed on a Saturday afternoon and drove to the city jail.
Nichols fought the hordes of reporters to get into the Dallas County jail and sit down with Lee Harvey Oswald.
Nichols described Oswald, who was dressed in a white T-shirt and slacks, as calm and rested. He had a bruise over one eye but appeared to be in good health. He said that police were holding him “incommunicado” and that he did not know what had happened to the president, Mr. Nichols told the Warren Commission.
Oswald said he wanted a New York lawyer named John Abt or a lawyer associated with the American Civil Liberties Unionto represent him. Oswald also wanted a lawyer “who believes as I believe, and believes in my innocence.”
“What I am interested in is knowing right now, do you want me or the Dallas Bar Association to try to get you a lawyer?” Mr. Nichols asked Oswald.
“No, not right now,” he replied.
His need for counsel abated the following day at the hand of Jack Ruby.
It’s interesting to see the same situation through different eyes. On November 22, 1963, there was no man more hated in the United States of America than Oswald. Yet a civil lawyer, at risk of becoming a national pariah for an effort that he was ill-prepared to complete, sat down and asked if he wanted help getting a lawyer. Was it solicitation? I think not. It was one of those finest moments the legal profession has to offer.
There was nothing to gain and everything to lose. Still he went.
It’s unlikely that H. Louis Nichols was a radical, inasmuch as he was 47 years old and President of the Dallas County Bar Association in 1963. He likely wore a white shirt and dark suit with lace-up shoes. He was a lawyer. When he walked into the jail, he didn’t know whether he would walk out the most hated lawyer in America, but he had to make certain that Lee Harvey Oswald would have a lawyer, and offered his help.
Imagine if the same situation occurred today. Would he have worried about his Google pagerank? Would fear of the inability to pay off his student loans have made him hesitate? Would concern over placing duty above image have dissuaded him from doing the unthinkable, aiding the most despised man in the nation? And Nichols wasn’t even a criminal defense lawyer.
Discover more from Simple Justice
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Would he have been beaten to the courthouse by a hoard of publicity-seeking lawyers salivating over the chance to appear on TV every night for a year and a half followed by a seven-figure book deal?
So how, and where, does the line get drawn? After all, anyone that has ever chased a case, be it civil or criminal, could use the same line: The person needed representation.
In an ever-shifting field of gray (depending on the notoriety of the crime/accident) do we draw an absolute line of “never do this” or say “it all depends”?
My concern, of course, is not with Nichols/Oswald, but with all the others.
H. Louis Nichols was my grandfather, and he was a very unselfish man. He went to help Oswald out not expecting anything. I am very glad you took the time to recognize him in this article. :]
If you read his testimony (available online) at the U.S. Attorney’s Office, he went to the jail to make sure Mr. Oswald had representation, or if he needed to get him an attorney. You completely misrepresent the situation. Mr. Nichols DID NOT KNOW if Ms. Oswald had legal representation. However, he saw it as his duty to make sure, in his own mind, that an individual, possibly in need, was represented. He even recounts to Mr. Oswald how he was a civil lawyer and would get him another attorney who practices criminal law. So, go read his testimony before you start defaming him. Yes, defaming. I do not care if he has passed. I would represent his estate. And not just because I had the privilege of working with him for 2.5 of the last 4.5 years of his life, but because the man cared about people and upholding the law.
My condolences to you and your family, and the honor was mine to recognize your grandfather’s contribution to the honor of the profession,
Turk isn’t questioning Mr. Nichols’s conduct or motives, but rather the larger, more generic question. He certainly isn’t trying to besmirch Mr. Nichols’ reputation in any respect. There is no question that his purpose in meeting with Oswald were not merely honorable, but in the finest tradition of the legal profession.
Sounds like he didn’t go there to offer his services as Oswald’s lawyer, but to offer his services in helping Oswald to get a lawyer. Big difference.
Sounds like he didn’t go there to offer his services as Oswald’s lawyer, but to offer his services in helping Oswald to get a lawyer. Big difference.
If that happened today, how exactly, would you be able to tell the difference?
Couldn’t that same line be used by most anyone who approaches an arrestee or car accident victim?
Mr. Nichols was my grandfather also and along with my sister, thank you very much for taking the time to recognize him. You did a very nice job. 🙂