Judge George William Crockett III served on the
Detroit Recorder's Court (later the Wayne County Circuit Court) from 1976 until 2003. He was known for presiding over the 1993
Malice Green
Malice Green (April 29, 1957 – November 5, 1992) was an American resident of Detroit, Michigan who died after being assaulted by Detroit police officers Walter Budzyn and Larry Nevers on November 5, 1992. The official cause of death was ruled t ...
case, and for his father,
George Crockett Jr.
George William Crockett Jr. (August 10, 1909 – September 7, 1997) was an African-American attorney, jurist, and congressman from the U.S. state of Michigan. He also served as a national vice-president of the National Lawyers Guild and co- ...
, an influential civil rights activist, congressman and judge who preceded and served with him on the Recorder's Court.
Early life and education
Crockett was born in Fairmont, West Virginia, to parents George Crockett, Jr., and
Ethelene Jones Crockett, an influential physician, activist, and Michigan's first African-American female OB/GYN, who would go on to lead the
American Lung Association
The American Lung Association is a voluntary health organization whose mission is to save lives by improving lung health and preventing lung disease through education, advocacy and research.
History
The organization was founded in 1904 to figh ...
.
Crockett graduated in 1959 from
Windsor Mountain School
The Windsor Mountain School was a private, co-ed boarding school for grades 9 through 12 located in Lenox, Massachusetts.
History
The school was established in Lenox in 1944 by German Jewish educational reformer Max Bondy and his wife Gertrud ...
, in Lenox, MA and
Morehouse College
, mottoeng = And there was light (literal translation of Latin itself translated from Hebrew: "And light was made")
, type = Private historically black men's liberal arts college
, academic_affiliations ...
in Atlanta, graduating in 1961. During his time at Morehouse, he was arrested at a sit-in protest against racial segregation. Crockett went on to receive a Juris Doctor degree from the Detroit College of Law in 1964.
Legal career
After law school, Crockett went into private practice at Goodman, Crockett, Eden, Robb and Philo in Detroit (his father's firm, and one of the first racially integrated law firms in the country) and with Alphonse Lewis, Jr. in Grand Rapids, Michigan. From 1970 to 1976 he worked at the Legal Aid and Defender Association of Detroit, under renowned attorney Myzell Sowell, who during his twelve-year tenure built the Defender Association into an incubator of Detroit's legal talent; sixteen of the attorneys who worked under Sowell in this time went on to become judges.
In 1977, Crockett was elected to the Detroit Recorder's Court as a judge, where he briefly served on the same bench as his father, who was the Chief Judge of the Recorder's Court until his election to Congress in 1980. The younger Crockett stayed on the Recorder's court until its merger with the Wayne County Circuit Court in 1997, where he continued to serve until his retirement in 2003. Crockett was succeeded on Michigan's Third Circuit Judicial Court by Judge Edward Ewell, Jr.
Crockett was also a member of the Wolverine Bar Association, a group founded by African-American lawyers when they were forbidden from joining the Michigan Bar Association.
Notable Legal Case
Crockett became known nationwide for presiding over the trial of police officers
Walter Budzyn
Malice Green (April 29, 1957 – November 5, 1992) was an American resident of Detroit
Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the ...
and
Larry Nevers for the 1992 killing of
Malice Green
Malice Green (April 29, 1957 – November 5, 1992) was an American resident of Detroit, Michigan who died after being assaulted by Detroit police officers Walter Budzyn and Larry Nevers on November 5, 1992. The official cause of death was ruled t ...
. The trial attracted controversy and public scrutiny as an example of police brutality in the charged atmosphere following the 1991
Rodney King
Rodney Glen King (April 2, 1965June 17, 2012) was an African American man who was a victim of police brutality. On March 3, 1991, he was beaten by Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) officers during his arrest after a pursuit for driving whi ...
beating in Los Angeles. Assistant Prosecutor
Kym Worthy
Kym Loren Worthy (born December 5, 1956) is an American lawyer and politician serving as the prosecutor of Wayne County, Michigan since 2004. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, she is the first African-American wo ...
led the prosecution team. The two white Detroit police officers were found guilty by two separate juries of second-degree murder, and Crockett sentenced them to 12–25 years and 8–18 years respectively.
Although the case was a media spectacle and included some disputes between the Detroit news media and the Judge, Crockett was praised for his commitment to fairness. According to Edward Littlejohn, a
Wayne State University Law School
Wayne State University Law School (Wayne Law) is the law school of Wayne State University in Detroit. Wayne Law is located in Midtown, Detroit's Cultural Center. Founded in 1927, the law school offers juris doctor (J.D.), master of laws (LL.M.), ...
professor emeritus, “his handling of that case probably prevented upheavals in the community. He kept everybody calm. I thought he was the perfect judge for that case ... He was fair across the board ...”
Death
Crockett remained active after his retirement, and moved to Florida in 2015. He died on Friday, July 1, 2016, from lung cancer.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Crockett III, George
1938 births
2016 deaths
African-American judges
Lawyers from Detroit
Morehouse College alumni
Detroit College of Law alumni
20th-century American judges
20th-century American lawyers
20th-century African-American people
21st-century African-American people
Lawyers from Fairmont, West Virginia