Jerry Summers
In a state where politicians and prosecutors and many judges have always taken a tough approach to punishing First Degree Murder cases as capital offenses and have sought the death penalty by hanging, electrocution, or lethal injection, one prominent exception exists in our judicial history.
Ray L. Brock, Jr. was a native of Bradley County, Tennessee (1922-2002) and attended the University of Tennessee, University of Colorado, and obtained a law degree from Duke University in 1948.
He would practice general law in Chattanooga for 15 years before he was appointed Chancellor (equity judge) by Governor Frank G. Clement in 1963 based on his legal ability.
Ironically, Brock had served as lead legal counsel for impeached Hamilton County Criminal Court judge Raulston Schoolfield’s (RS) disbarment case in the local and state bar association’s efforts to preclude the controversial judge and lawyer from seeking a public office position by popular election.
Brock fought for RS all the way through the final decision of the Tennessee Supreme Court in 1960.
He urged his client to appeal to the United States Supreme Court on the issue that his impeachment (and disbarment) had been based on an unconstitutional Tennessee statute that “required a defendant to be the first witness for the defense if he chose to testify.”
Schoolfield refused to allow Brock to appeal the disbarment decision and ironically the highest court in the country declared the statute invalid in the 1973 case of Brooks v. Tennessee.
In 1974 Brock was selected by the Democrat Party of Tennessee to run on the five (5) member slate to “Elect a Great Supreme Court,” which defeated token Republican opposition on a campaign to modernize the states’ positions in civil and criminal law.
“In a state that was conservative in the area of law enforcement, Brock took a liberal position on the death penalty. Although initially supportive of capital punishment, he changed his position on punishment for those convicted of first degree murder and sentenced to death.
Although he consistently sided with his four colleagues in the guilt phase of death penalty cases, after 1981 he always dissented on sentencing a convicted murderer to death on the grounds that it violated the 8th Amendment of the United States Constitution and Article I, Section 16 of the Tennessee Constitution as being “cruel and unusual” punishment. He adopted this position and adhered to it throughout his term on the Tennessee Supreme Court. Surprisingly no ground swell of opposition arose against him on this position although some criticized his stance.
Brock left the bench [as Chief Justice] at the age of sixty-five and was of counsel to a Chattanooga law firm for a while prior to his death at age eighty in 2002.”
With the development of DNA evidence in the field of forensic science, where many poor defendants in highly emotional murder cases have been exonerated years after their convictions, the wisdom of Ray Brock’s independent position on the final question of taking an individual’s life as punishment remains controversial.
The fact that he was never challenged publicly on his consistent vote of not voting for the death penalty is a tribute to his character and respect by the legal community and voting public.
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You can reach Jerry Summers at jsummers@summersfirm.com