Martin R. Stolar, a prominent civil rights lawyer who in the early 1970s defended war resisters and inmates who rebelled at Attica prison, as well as initiating a landmark case restraining the New York Police Department from spying on left-wing activists, died on July 1 in Manhattan. His wife, Elsie Chandler, said he died in a hospital after suffering heart failure while awaiting surgery for a broken hip. Mr. Stolar was one of a generation of idealistic lawyers who, inspired by the civil rights and anti-Vietnam War movements, forsook lucrative careers to lend their expertise to social justice causes. “He had a practice that not only defended needy people, it propelled social movements,” said Franklin Siegel, a Distinguished Lecturer at the City University of New York School of Law, who knew Mr. Stolar for nearly six decades.

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Persons: Martin R, resisters, Elsie Chandler, Stolar, ”, Franklin Siegel Organizations: New York Police Department, City University of New York School of Law Locations: Attica, Manhattan, Vietnam