Noted NJ defense attorney Raymond Brown dies at 94

NEWARK, N.J. — Raymond A. Brown, a veteran New Jersey defense lawyer whose high-profile clients included former boxer Rubin “Hurricane” Carter, has died. He was 94.

Brown, a Montclair resident, died Friday from pulmonary disease, said his son and law partner Ray Brown Jr. He had practiced law for 59 years and had continued working until March.

Carter was convicted along with another man of murdering three people in a Paterson bar in 1966. Their convictions were overturned in 1975, but both were found guilty a second time in 1976. After serving 19 years, Carter was freed in 1985 when a federal judge overturned the second convictions.

Brown also represented Joanne Chesimard, a Black Liberation Army member who was convicted of gunning down a state trooper in 1973. She fled to Cuba after escaping prison in 1979 and is now known as Assata Shakur.

Family members and colleagues say Brown’s well-known cases were just one aspect of a career that was fueled by a desire to defend the defenseless.

“He represented so many ordinary people,” his son told The Star-Ledger of Newark. “People who were drug addicts, people who were down on their luck, people who had done dumb things.”