George Neves Leighton
Justice Harrison, Academy Laureates to be honored
Access to Justice
Luncheon scheduled Feb. 1 in Chicago
Excerpts from the ISBA Bar News
Volume
41, No. 10 December
15, 2000
By Stephen Anderson
Chief Justice Moses W. Harrison II of the
Illinois Supreme Court will be honored in February by the Illinois State Bar
Association during a luncheon at which 12 Laureates of the Academy of Illinois
Lawyers will be inducted.
Cook County Laureates are James J. Ahern of
Skokie, Eugene Crane, Harold A. Katz, George N. Leighton, Francis X. Riley,
Jerold S. Solovy and Willis R. Tribler
of Chicago. The late Thomas J. Foran of Chicago will
be inducted posthumously.
Former federal and Cook
County circuit judge George Leighton, born 88 years ago to immigrants from the
Cape Verde Islands, was nominated by Academy Laureate Martha A. Mills as a
champion of civil and constitutional rights and opponent of capital punishment.
He is of counsel to Earl L. Neal & Associates.
A past president of the Chicago branch of
the NAACP and chair of its Legal Redress Committee, Leighton has received
awards from the American Civil Liberties Union, the John Howard Association and
Cook County Bar Association, and has two honorary doctorates. He is a past
chair of the ISBA Bill of Rights Committee.
George N. Leighton
Quotes:
United States District
Judge George Leighton has stated: “[T]he
loss of life means more than being deprived of the right to exist, or of the
ability to earn a living; it includes deprivation of the pleasures of
life.” Sherrod v.
Berry, 629 F. Supp. 159 (N.D. Ill. 1985). aff’d, 827 F.2d 195 (7th Cir.
1987), vacated and remanded, 835 F.2d 1222 (7th Cir. 1988).
Publications:
From: Fall Volume 1966:3, Illinois Criminal
Procedure II
Publication: Post-Conviction Remedies in Illinois
Criminal Procedure—George N. Leighton
Presentations and Awards:
From the Chicago Bar Association’s CBA Report
THE CHICAGO BAR ASSOCIATION
INAUGURATES PRESTIGIOUS U.S. SUPREME COURT JUSTICE JOHN PAUL STEVENS AWARD
Distinguished Recipients to be Honored at
September 13 Gala Dinner
At the urging of Justice Stevens' former law clerks, The Chicago Bar
Association (CBA) and Chicago Bar Foundation (CBF) have established an Award in
honor of Justice John Paul Stevens. The Justice John Paul Stevens Award will be
given annually to a Chicago-area attorney whose career has exemplified the
highest standards of the legal profession. For the inaugural awards, the
selection committee, co-chaired by CBA President William J. Linklater
and CBF President Leonard J. Schrager, has selected
eight outstanding Chicago attorneys to be the first recipients of this
distinguished award.
The
eight honorees are:
Jean Allard
Hon. William J. Bauer
Philip H. Corboy
Milton H. Gray
Hon. George Leighton
Dawn Clark Netsch
Jerold S. Solovy
Thomas P. Sullivan
The
following was taken from WIKIPEDIA at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Leighton. All Rights Reserved.
George Neves Leighton (born George Neves
Leitão on
October 22, 1912, in New Bedford,
Massachusetts) is a retired African-American judge.
|
Leighton was born George Neves Leitão, son of Ana Silva Garcia and António Neves Leitão, both originally from Brava, Cape Verde.[1] His surname was anglicised
as
"Leighton" by a teacher who claimed she could not pronounce his last
name "Leitão". His parents, wanting no
problems for their son, agreed.
Leighton was married to the late Virginia Berry
Quivers and has two daughters, Virginia Anne and Barbara Elaine. He is the
grandfather of five and the great grandfather of six. He was a strong
tournament chess player.
Leighton graduated from Howard
University with an A.B. in
1940 and from Harvard Law School with an LL.B. in 1946. From 1942-1945 he had served
in the United States army, rising to the rank of Captain. He was in private
practice from 1946-1964. During this time he served as Assistant State Attorney
General of Illinois from 1949-1951. He was a Master in chancery, Circuit Court
of Cook County, Illinois from 1960 to 1964.
Leighton was a judge with the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois from 1964–1969, and was a judge with
the First District Appellate Court of Illinois from 1969-1976. Judge Leighton
was the first African-American to hold this position in the State of Illinois.
In 1975, President Gerald Ford nominated Leighton to a seat on the
U.S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois. This was a seat being
vacated by Abraham L. Marovitz. He was confirmed on February 2, 1976, and
received commission on February 4, 1976. He retired from this position on
November 30, 1987, and returned to the practice of law with the firm of Earl L.
Neal & Associates.
Leighton became a Life Member in the National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)
in 1964, having served the Chicago branch as president and general
counsel for several years.
“ |
The average Hispanic, the average African-American,
thinks when he walks into a courtroom where everyone is white besides him, he
is convinced the judgment has already been entered against him. They aren't
imagining things. There are many communities in America where the cards are stacked
against minorities before the case is called. They are relieved when they
walk in and see a member of their race sitting on the bench. |
From the American Inns of Court website at http://www.innsofcourt.org/Content/Default.aspx?Id=347.
All Rights Reserved.
George
N. Leighton was born on October 22, 1912 in New Bedford, Massachusetts, the son
of immigrants from the African Cape Verde Islands. He attended grade schools on
Cape Cod and in New Bedford. He finished the sixth grade; but never entered
high school because he had to work to help support his family. He spent his
Depression-era adolescence working in the cranberry bogs and even on an oil
tanker sailing from Fall River, Massachusetts to Aruba, off the northern coast
of South America. This ended his public school education, but not his quest for
knowledge. He was a voracious reader and borrowed books from many various
sources and attended night school.
In 1936, Leighton
submitted an essay in a writing contest in New Bedford and won a $200 college
scholarship. Determined to use the scholarship, he submitted an application for
admission to Howard University. He received a letter from the registrar of
Howard, informing him that he could attend the school conditionally as an
unclassified student. If he proved he could do college work without a high
school diploma, Howard would make him a candidate for a degree. In September of
or that same year, assisted by the $200 essay scholarship award, and on the
authority of the letter written by the registrar, Leighton enthusiastically
began his freshman studies at Howard University.
At the end of the first
semester examinations, Leighton had made the Dean's Honor Roll. On making the honor
roll, Leighton reminded the registrar of the postscript to his 1936 letter, and
because of his achievement, was made a candidate for a degree in the College of
Liberal Arts. He remained on the Dean’s Honor Roll through his four years of
college studies, and in 1940, George Leighton graduated from Howard University
- magna cum laude.
Before his graduation,
Leighton wrote to the dean of the Harvard Law School. Because of his scholastic
record at Howard University, the dean awarded Leighton a first year scholarship
to Harvard Law School. He enrolled in September 1940, but midway through his
second year, his law studies were interrupted by World War II. Leighton served
as an Infantry officer with the 93rd Infantry Division throughout its service
in the Pacific Theatre until October 1945, when, as a Captain, he was relieved
from active duty. He returned to Harvard and a year later, graduated from
Harvard Law School, having already taken and passed the Massachusetts bar exam.
Moving to Chicago in
October of 1946, he became active in civic affairs, and soon became a member
and the Chairman of the Legal Redress Committee of the Chicago Branch of the
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. He served the
Chicago NAACP as president and general counsel, handling many cases, some of
them landmark, and in 1964, he proudly became a Life Member in the National
Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
In 1951, Leighton organized
the law firm of Moore, Ming & Leighton, predecessor to the law firms of
McCoy, Ming & Leighton and McCoy, Ming and Black, which, by the early
sixties, was considered to be one of the largest predominantly black law firms
in the United States. During his professional career, Leighton represented
plaintiffs and defendants in civil cases of every kind. Leighton withdrew from
the firm in 1964 when he was elected judge of the Circuit Court of Cook County.
Judge Leighton was
installed as a circuit court judge on December 7, 1964. On July 18, 1969, the
Supreme Court of Illinois selected him to sit on the Appellate Court for the
First District, and in 1970 Judge Leighton was elected to a 10-year term as a
Justice of the Illinois Appellate Court.
In December 1975,
President Gerald Ford nominated Judge Leighton to serve as a United States
District Judge for the Northern District of Illinois. He was confirmed by the
United States Senate and began serving on March 1, 1976. He retired from the
bench in 1987, and now, at the age of 90, serves the Chicago firm of Neal,
Murdock & Leroy as Of Counsel to and teaches law as an adjunct professor at
John Marshall Law School.
As an attorney, George
Leighton defended more than 200 criminal cases in bench and jury trials. During
this same period, he handled more than 175 appeals or reviews, both civil and
criminal, in state and federal courts. An ardent and spirited community
supporter and civic activist, he has won respect and admiration from all
quarters of society. His reputation as a fair, thoughtful and compassionate
champion of human rights and the rule of law have earned him a respected place
of service in a vast number of legal and civic organizations, committees,
panels and boards. In recognition and appreciation of his untiring work, wisdom
and leadership, Judge Leighton has received honors, awards, and honorary
degrees from around the country. Perhaps none is more poignant than the recent
decision of the New Bedford city fathers renaming and rededicating of a
hometown junior high school as the George N. Leighton School, in tribute to one
of the city’s most distinguished sons, one who never attended such a school.
Capping a legal career that spans half a century, Judge Leighton recently summarized the burdens and blessings of a lifetime in the profession of law by saying, “Our profession lives and exists in a plethora of rules, limitations and statutes. One can be disciplined, disbarred or disgraced for failing to operate within those limitations. It requires a disciplined and meticulous nature, a complete awareness of the restrictions. But the blessings far outnumber the burdens. In private practice, you may carve a niche in the community you serve. After many years, you may be asked to serve in the judiciary. The judiciary is the epitome of service. In this, the community says they trust you to be an administrator of justice – it’s the highest level of community service that our society offers.”
Additional
Information about Judge Leighton can be found at: http://www.jonathanpollard.org/2001/100501c.htm.