Walter G. Thiele (September 10, 1885 – March 14, 1968) was a justice of the

Kansas Supreme Court The Kansas Supreme Court is the highest judicial authority in the state of Kansas. Composed of seven justices, led by Chief Justice Marla Luckert, the court supervises the legal profession, administers the judicial branch, and serves as the sta ...

from January 9, 1933 to January 3, 1957, and chief justice from January 3, 1957 to January 14, 1957.

Early life, education, and career

A native of

Washington, Kansas Washington is a city in, and the county seat of, Washington County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 1,071. History Washington was established in spring 1860, and in the same year named county seat. ...

, he was a school teacher for several years before directly entering the

University of Kansas School of Law The University of Kansas School of Law is the law school of the University of Kansas, a public research university in Lawrence, Kansas. The University of Kansas Law School was founded in 1893, replacing the earlier Department of Law, which had exi ...

, which he was able to do without obtaining an undergraduate degree. Thiele graduated in 1910 and gained

admission to the bar An admission to practice law is acquired when a lawyer receives a license to practice law. In jurisdictions with two types of lawyer, as with barristers and solicitors, barristers must gain admission to the bar whereas for solicitors there are dist ...

that year, entering the practice of law in

Lawrence, Kansas Lawrence is the county seat of Douglas County, Kansas, Douglas County, Kansas, United States, and the sixth-largest city in the state. It is in the northeastern sector of the state, astride Interstate 70, between the Kansas River, Kansas and Waka ...

. Thiele also "served as city attorney and represented the University of Kansas on several occasions".

Judicial service

Thiele successfully ran as a

Republican Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...

for a seat on the Kansas Supreme Court in 1932, thereafter continually winning reelection until the state constitute was changed to make the positions appointed rather than elected. He held the sixth position of the Kansas Supreme Court until he retired and was succeeded by Alfred G. Schroeder. Thiele became the Chief Justice automatically when William A. Smith resigned before the end of his term. He only held the position of Chief Justice for a few days and was succeeded in that role by Jay S. Parker. In 1962 he was appointed by the

to be the commissioner to hear evidence for a case involving the petition for

habeas corpus ''Habeas corpus'' (; from Medieval Latin, ) is a recourse in law through which a person can report an unlawful detention or imprisonment to a court and request that the court order the custodian of the person, usually a prison official, t ...

in relation to the trial of Richard Hickock and Perry Edward Smith who had been sentence to death by hanging for the murder of the Herbert Clutter family.

Personal life and death

On July 26, 1911, Thiele married Maude Baker, with whom he had one son, John. He died at the age of 82 after a short illness March 14, 1968.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Thiele, Walter G. Justices of the Kansas Supreme Court Chief Justices of the Kansas Supreme Court 1885 births 1968 deaths University of Kansas School of Law alumni People from Washington County, Kansas 20th-century American judges