Former chief justice’s
book packs surprising plot twists
By Diane Karpman
The last time we discussed an
action-adventure, page-turner book was 2006 when we talked about the “The Lincoln Lawyer.” The book was stuffed with ethics issues, and we knew the protagonist
was merely a heartbeat away from a State Bar investigation. So we read it with
a vicarious sigh of relief.
There is a new book, “Chief: The Quest for Justice in California” by retired
Chief Justice Ronald M. George, that is an exciting page-turner. It is
suspenseful and engrossing. I was fascinated by the anecdotal stories in this
personal history.
As a child, he was a rascal.
Rather than practice the piano, he and a friend cut a record (no tapes existed
then) of him practicing. Each night when his parents went for a walk after
dinner, he paid his sister to play the record so their housekeeper could report
to his parents that he had practiced, but he didn’t seem to be improving.
He was a real prankster. In
1960, when he decided to attend the Nixon-Kennedy debate while attending
Princeton, he thought he could just go in, only to be informed that he needed a
press credential because seating was restricted. Rather than give up, he
obtained a press pass from the Kennedy headquarters by claiming he was with the
Yale Daily News. Remember, he was attending Princeton. Surprisingly, he got on
the press bus and enjoyed it so much that he boarded the press plane and hung
out with the press corps for three days, visiting St. Louis, Wichita and Kansas
City. He only disengaged because he was running out of money and had midterms.
(A story about this escapade appeared in The Washington Post at the time.)
George’s life has a “Forrest
Gump” quality. You may recall that Gump was involved in just about any big
story during his life, playing pingpong with the Chinese, meeting President
Kennedy. That’s our chief. As a young deputy attorney general, George argued
six U.S. Supreme Court cases and 11 California Supreme Court cases, including
the death penalty for Sirhan Sirhan.
The evolution of George’s views on capital punishment alone is worth reading
the book.
In preparation for those
arguments, he spent several days at San Quentin. He wanted to familiarize
himself with the files and be well-informed regarding the actual conditions for
the 101 inmates facing the death penalty. He worked quickly and didn’t need to
return on the next Saturday, which was the day of the famous 1971 riots that
resulted in the deaths of six people.
In the 1970s, there were
riots all over the state, often by college students demonstrating against the
Vietnam War. George was assigned to investigate the Isla Vista riots after a
national guardsman’s rifle discharged, killing student Kevin Moran. George used
forensic and ballistics techniques that seemed like something out of “CSI,”
which would not air for another 30 years. The shooting was eventually deemed an
accident.
This wasn’t the only time he
relied on exotic forensics. He used it to prosecute the underground newspaper The
Free Press, which published a list of 80 narcotic enforcement agents (names,
home addresses and phone numbers), truly putting them and their families in
jeopardy. George convinced opposing counsel to turn over the original list. Using
a new technique, he identified and prosecuted all who touched it. The gist of
the case was the crime of removing an official government document without
permission. This case occurred at the same time as the nation was obsessed with
Daniel Ellsberg’s controversial release of the Pentagon Papers. The California
Supreme Court reversed the Free Press convictions based on “insufficient
evidence,” although the chief believes that the court dodged First Amendment
issues presented in the parallel Pentagon Papers case.
These are but a few tidbits
from the book. You must also remember that the chief presided over what many
considered the trial of the century, the Hillside Strangler case (tried by an
all-star lineup spanning two years and two days). But for the chief’s aggressive
denial of the district attorney’s motion to dismiss, Angelo Buono would have
escaped prosecution. Eventually, he was convicted of nine out of 10 counts of
murder. He was prosecuted by the Attorney General’s office, because the district
attorney’s office was disqualified.
The chief also wrote the
opinion in the In Re Marriage Cases. He felt that his broad shoulders
could handle the onslaught of controversy that would occur when California
ruled that same-sex marriages were within the equal protection doctrine of the state
constitution. That led to Proposition 8, the voter ban on same-sex marriage
which was ultimately invalidated by the federal courts. Nobody would have predicted
society could change so quickly on this civil rights issue.
There’s no need for a spoiler
alert, because the book is chockablock full of fascinating details that lawyers
are rarely exposed to. It is a behind-the-scenes, play-by- play analysis. The chief
told me that doing this oral history was as close to being in psychoanalysis as
he ever wanted to be.
This is a kind and
compassionate man, who throughout his life demonstrates a keen awareness of
humanity. One example is his ruling that a marriage need not be limited to a
man and a woman. The decision was firmly based on a 1948 decision by California
Chief Justice Roger Traynor, Perez v. Sharp (striking down a ban on
interracial marriage). It was not until 1967 that the U.S. Supreme Court struck
down anti-miscegenation laws.
When asked about his direct
or indirect connections to many of the major issues of his day, the chief
explains, “It’s a question of maximizing the opportunities that come one’s
way.” “Chief” should be a motion picture. It’s that exciting.
Legal ethics expert Diane Karpman can be
contacted at 310-887-3900 or at karpethics@aol.com.