I saw today in the newspaper that former Court of Criminal Appeals Judge Sam Houston Clinton passed away. As a former briefing attorney for that court, I must comment that we have lost a good lawyer and symbol of a lost era.

At the time I was on the court, I worked for Judge Charles Campbell (1985-87). The members of the court were then Democrats and had names that matched well-known products (Miller, Campbell, McCormick, Baird), colors (White, Black) or historical figures (Clinton, Teague). Oh yeah, and a vegetable (Onion).

Name recognition was pretty important then to get elected. Nowadays, the court is all Republican.

As a newly licensed lawyer, I must say I was pretty impressed with the court. The personalities of the judges were quite different. Nothing like having a drink after work with someome like Judge Teague to learn about the law.

Sam Houston Clinton certainly matched his personality with anyone else on the court. He was a through and through liberal but was a scholar when it came to the law. He like using Latin in his opinions and didn't much think he had to explain things out loud.

I would love to read comments from some of his former briefing attorneys and research assistants. I am sure there are some great stories out there.

John,

I clerked for Judge Clinton in 93-94. All the good things said about him in the obit below are absolutely true.

Robert


Three-term appeals jurist defended Ruby and O'Hair
Sam Houston Clinton, who died Tuesday at 81, was successful in progressive cases
By Dick Stanley
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Thursday, October 7, 2004
Sam Houston Clinton's political opponents sometimes accused him, in his capacity as a judge of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals for three consecutive six-year terms, of letting too many criminals off on procedural errors.
Clinton, a former Austin criminal defense lawyer known for his activism who retired from the court in 1996, would reply that the criminals weren't let go but were retired and that it was his job to be conscientious about the law and the Constitution.
"If it's what the law is, we're supposed to vote that way," he told the Austin American-Statesman in 1990. "If that's what the law demands, why is that held up against us?"
Clinton died Tuesday at a North Austin retirement home of complications of Alzheimer's disease, with which he had struggled for several years. He was 81.
"He was a fine gentleman," said his former Austin law partner Dave Richards. "He did a lot of grand things."
Clinton was born Sept. 23, 1923, in Waco, the son of a cotton broker who would later would become a Burnet County rancher. Clinton grew up in Waco and graduated from Baylor University. He served in World War II as a Navy aviator and came home to graduate from Baylor Law School.
Some of his legal clients were or became quite famous, including Austin atheist Madalyn O'Hair and Dallas nightclub owner Jack Ruby, the man who killed Lee Harvey Oswald, the assassin of President Kennedy.
Clinton got Ruby's conviction for killing Oswald, which was recorded on film in front of many witnesses, reversed on appeal.
"There were a multitude of procedural errors," Richards recalled. "The judge who tried the case had showed off too much and screwed it up."
But Ruby, meanwhile, had died of cancer while in prison, so the reversal was only a historical footnote.
Clinton brought and won a lawsuit to desegregate the women's dormitories at the University of Texas in the late 1960s and had a Killeen ordinance ruled unconstitutional in his representation of Vietnam War protesters who were jailed under the ordinance's provisions.
In the years before he became a judge, Clinton also was general counsel to the Texas AFL/CIO and the Texas Civil Liberties Union and served on committees for the State Bar of Texas and the Texas Criminal Defense Lawyers Association.
After he was elected to the court as a Democrat in 1978, some opponents complained about the advantage of his famous first and middle names. One potential Austin challenger said he would have to change his name to Davy Crockett to beat Clinton.
But U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Austin, a former Texas Supreme Court justice, said Clinton lived up to his famous name, although he was not related to Sam Houston, the controversial hero of the Texas Revolution.
"On more than one occasion," Doggett said, Clinton "demonstrated the courage of his namesake. He was a fine jurist, an outstanding lawyer and a powerful voice for progressive causes."
Clinton is survived by his wife of 34 years, the former Hazel Lindsay of Edinburgh, Scotland, a brother, four children and two grandchildren.
Funeral services are at 1:30 p.m. Friday at Weed-Corley-Fish Funeral Home, 3125 N. Lamar Blvd., with burial to follow at the Texas State Cemetery.

Friday, October 8, 2004, 06:16 PM


Final Plaudits for Judge Sam Houston Clinton


He was a legal giant, an inspiration to those who worked for and with him, several of them said Friday at the funeral of former Court of Criminal Appeals Justice Sam Houston Clinton.


Clinton, a staunch defender of little folks as a lawyer before and after his 18 years on the state�s highest criminal court, never wavered in his enforcement of the law, said former Justice Charles Baird, who was on the court with Clinton his final six years.


�He was an awesome and inspiring figure,� Baird told a standing-room-only crowd at Weed-Corley-Fish Funeral Home. Clinton, 81, died Tuesday of complications of Alzheimer�s disease.


Baird said Clinton was known on the court for working weekends and for seeing the connections between vast areas of the law. His 1,094 opinions were the second most by a justice on the court in Texas history, Baird said.


The state and federal constitution were �never more secure than when Sam Houston Clinton stood as their guardian,� Baird said.


Although Clinton often sided with those accused of crimes against prosecutors or judges whom he thought had been overzealous or fast and loose with the law, he was respected even by his opponents.


Baird recalled that Clinton, during their simultaneous campaigns in 1990, responded to an invitation to address a prosecutors association even though many of them disagreed with him vehemently.


In closing his remarks, Baird recalled that Clinton quoted from William Shakespeare�s �Hamlet� to define his philosophy of the law and what he hoped would be theirs:


�This above all: to thine own self be true. And it must follow the night as the day, thou canst not then be false to any man.�


David Richards, who grew up a few years behind Clinton in Waco, practiced labor and civil rights law with him for several years in Austin before Clinton was elected to the court in 1978.


Richards, at the time married to Ann Richards before she was governor, said Clinton was the best partner a man could have.


�There never was a better man to run the river with,� Richards said. After the service, Clinton was buried in the Texas State Cemetery.