243 N.W. 386 | Minn. | 1932
G. S. 1923 (1 Mason, 1927) § 5697, subd. 1, provides in part:
"An attorney at law may be removed or suspended by the supreme court for any one of the following causes arising after his admission to practice:
"(A) Upon his being convicted of a felony, or of a misdemeanor involving moral turpitude; in either of which cases the record of conviction shall be conclusive evidence."
Upon the hearing in these disciplinary proceedings the record of the respondent's conviction was admitted, and he offered no evidence tending to mitigate the punishment which this court might impose under its disciplinary powers.
The crime of "racketeering" is a menace to all government. It supplies with funds a large class of criminals who seek to be an invisible government more powerful and tyrannical than any legitimate one. Were it to be tolerated, no honest citizen would be safe in life, limb, or property, and all would be at the mercy of the criminal class. That a lawyer should be involved in such a criminal conspiracy as manager and as the planning intelligence characterizes him as a dangerous enemy of the very constitutions which he has sworn to support. The crime charged is subversive of all government and involves a high degree of moral turpitude. *359
In proceedings for disbarment on account of conviction of a felony, moral turpitude is not an element necessary to consider; but we consider it in this case as justifying the full exercise of our disciplinary powers.
The judgment and order of this court is that the respondent be disbarred.