Robert F. Utter

Add links
This is a good article. Click here for more information.
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Robert F. Utter
Utter in 1972
Justice of the Washington Supreme Court
In office
December 20, 1971 (1971-12-20) – March 30, 1995 (1995-03-30)
Appointed byDan Evans
Succeeded byRosselle Pekelis
Chief Justice of the Washington Supreme Court
In office
1979 (1979)–1981 (1981)
Personal details
Born(1930-06-19)June 19, 1930
LLB
)

Robert French Utter (June 19, 1930 – October 15, 2014) was an American attorney and jurist from

independent judiciaries
. He died in 2014.

Early life and education

Utter was born in

Linfield College before transferring to the University of Washington. He majored in political science and English literature, graduating with a bachelor's degree in 1951. He then earned his law degree from University of Washington School of Law in 1954.[1] In 1958, Utter founded the Seattle chapter of Big Brothers, the first chapter in the state.[1][2]

Career

Utter served as a law clerk for Supreme Court Judge Matthew Hill after graduating from law school. He then served as the King County, Washington Juvenile Court commissioner from 1959 to 1964 before being elected as a King County Superior Court judge in 1964. In 1968, he was then appointed to the Washington Court of Appeals by Governor Dan Evans.[3]

In 1971, following the resignation of Morell Edward Sharp, Evans appointed Utter to the Washington Supreme Court; he was sworn in on December 20, 1971, at the age of 41. Utter served for 23 years on the Washington Supreme Court, as chief justice from 1979 to 1981. Utter was 48 years old when he assumed the role of Chief Justice, making him at the time the youngest Chief Justice in the history of Washington State.[1][4] That year, he was criticized by members of the Washington State Prosecuting Attorneys' Association as being overly "soft on crime". The prosecutors felt that Utter was too quick to throw court cases out on technicalities, letting "criminals go free".[5] In 1978, Utter dissented from the majority opinion in State v. Riker, arguing that evidence that Riker suffered from "battered woman syndrome" should have been admitted in the case. His dissent was characterized as "establish[ing] a battered woman’s right to self-defense" in The Seattle Times.[2][6]

Utter's tenure was characterized by support of

Indiana University School of Law Indianapolis.[7] In 1992 Utter advised on creating a criminal law code for the Central Tibetan Administration.[1]

As a justice, Utter dissented in 24 of the 25 cases that came before the court where capital punishment was upheld.[1][8] For instance, he considered the 1986 death sentence of Brian Keith Lord to be excessive.[9] In 1994 Utter read Hitler's Justice by Inge Müller,[1][8] a book profiling cases from the Weimar Republic, Nazi Germany, and West Germany and arguing for a continuity in the German judicial system.[10] He later cited the book as one of the main reasons for his resignation, along with the execution of Westley Allan Dodd.[1][8][11] Utter also felt that the death penalty was unfairly given to "poor and racial minorities".[12]

On March 30, 1995, Utter wrote a letter to

Governor Mike Lowry announcing that he was resigning from the court in protest of the death penalty, effective on April 24, 1995. In the letter, Utter wrote "I have reached the point where I can no longer participate in a legal system that intentionally takes human life" and that "[w]e continue to demonstrate no human is wise enough to decide who should die."[8][1][n. 1] Lowry appointed Rosselle Pekelis to fill Utter's seat.[14] In April, he wrote that he regretted failing "to provide equal access to justice" to all people in Washington.[15] At the time of his resignation, The News Tribune wrote that Utter was "considered one of the nation's leading scholars on state constitutional issues and the notion that a state's civil rights laws take precedence over the federal Constitution".[11] The Seattle Times wrote that the court lost "a jurist of the highest intellectual caliber" with Utter's resignation.[12]

Electoral history

In Washington State, judges and Supreme Court Justices are elected in nonpartisan races.[16] After being appointed to the Washington Supreme Court, Utter was required to run in the next election, in 1972. He then successfully ran for reelection when his term ended in 1974 and every six years thereafter until 1992. Since he received at least 50% of the vote in each of the primary elections, Utter was the only candidate to appear on the ballot for the general elections.[16][17]

Later work

In the 1990s, Utter chaired the

Washington State Constitution. After resigning, he worked on a University of Washington project in Rwanda dealing with how courts tried to approach justice in the aftermath of the Rwandan genocide, including talking with members of the United Nations’ International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda as part of a team in 2008.[2][3][18]

Utter traveled around the world after working to help developing nations create

The Seattle Times reaffirming his opposition to the death penalty, writing that "[r]etaining the death penalty fails to serve either justice, public safety or the public purse."[21] After Governor Jay Inslee imposed a moratorium on state executions in 2014, Utter described it as an "overwhelming relief", saying that "all the past effort had not been wasted."[22][23]

Personal life

While a student at

Linfield College, Utter dated Betty Stevenson. The two were married on December 28, 1953.[1] Utter died at his home in Olympia, Washington, on October 15, 2014.[24]

Legacy

Utter has been linked to the rise of New Federalism, "a movement in which state supreme courts began to recognize that state constitutional rights provisions could be applied to provide more protection than recognized by the United States Supreme Court under the federal Constitution", due to his decisions on the Court and to his teachings on state constitutional law.[7] Richard B. Sanders called him "the judge's judge".[2] In 2016, Robert F. Williams wrote that "Taken together, Justice Utter's academic writings could have formed the basis for an influential book that would still be useful today in Washington and across the country." Charles W. Johnson said that "Utter's development of an independent interpretation of the State Constitution was probably as strong an influence on this court as could have been achieved by any individual".[7]

In 1997, the YMCA Youth and Government program in Washington named its highest award after him.[2] The "Robert F. Utter Award" is presented to individuals who "show consistent, outstanding and sustained contributions to the cause of civic leadership in Washington." Utter was the first recipient of the award.[25]

Notes

  1. ^ In 2018, the Washington State Supreme Court declared that the death penalty was unconstitutional.[13]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n "Robert F. Utter: Justice's sailor". Washington Secretary of State. Archived from the original on January 16, 2019. Retrieved January 15, 2019.
  2. ^ a b c d e f Kaiman, Beth (October 16, 2014). "Robert Utter, former Washington Supreme Court justice, dies at 84". The Seattle Times. Archived from the original on December 19, 2017. Retrieved January 16, 2019.
  3. ^ a b "Former Washington Supreme Court Justice Robert Utter dies". The Seattle Times. October 16, 2014. Retrieved July 27, 2020.
  4. ^ Bonino, Rick (January 9, 1979). "Williams Joins State's High Court". The Spokesman-Review. p. 20. Retrieved August 22, 2020.
  5. Newspapers.com Open access icon
    .
  6. ^ "State v. Riker". Justia Law. Retrieved August 5, 2020.
  7. ^ a b c d Williams, Robert F. (2016). "Justice Robert Utter, the Supreme Court of Washington, and the New Judicial Federalism: Judging and Teaching?". Washington Law Review. 91. Retrieved September 10, 2020.
  8. ^ a b c d e Armstrong, Ken (April 30, 2015). "No Human Is Wise Enough to Decide Who Should Die". The Marshall Project. Retrieved August 29, 2020.
  9. ^ Broom, Jack; Seven, Richard; Guillen, Thomas (January 3, 1993). "Death Penalty: A Law Unevenly Applied? -- It's Handed Out More Often In Some Counties, Study Finds". The Seattle Times. Retrieved August 29, 2020.
  10. JSTOR 1123061.; Lippman, Matthew (Spring 1993). "They Shoot Lawyers Don't They?: Law in the Third Reich and the Global Threat to the Independence of the Judiciary"
    . California Western International Law Journal. 23: 257–318.
  11. ^ a b Epler, Patty (April 23, 1995). "Revolt From the Bench— Utter Leaves Court Monday". The News Tribune. p. B1.
  12. ^ a b c "Utter's Departure a Loss". The Seattle Times. March 30, 1995.
  13. ^ "Washington Supreme Court Strikes Down Death Penalty Citing Racial Bias". American Civil Liberties Union. October 11, 2018. Archived from the original on December 24, 2018. Retrieved January 16, 2019.
  14. ^ "Filing Period Expected to be Quiet". Moscow-Pullman Daily News. July 24, 1995. Retrieved January 16, 2019 – via Google News Archive Search.
  15. ISSN 0190-8286
    . Retrieved August 29, 2020.
  16. ^ a b "Washington State Courts - News, Reports, Court Information". Washington State Courts. Retrieved August 22, 2020.
  17. ^ "Election Search Results - Elections & Voting - WA Secretary of State". Washington Secretary of State. Retrieved August 22, 2020.
  18. ^ Doyle, Margie (October 17, 2014). "Orcas Issues: News & Views". Orcas Issues: News & Views. Archived from the original on January 16, 2019. Retrieved January 15, 2019.
  19. ^ Epler, Patti (December 31, 1995). "Where Are They Now? The News Tribune Checks in". The News Tribune.
  20. ^ a b "Robert Utter". University of Washington School of Law. Spring 2008. pp. 17, 39.
  21. ^ Utter, Robert F. (March 11, 2009). "Washington state must abandon the death penalty". The Seattle Times. Retrieved July 27, 2020.
  22. ^ "Gov. Jay Inslee Announces Capital Punishment Moratorium | Governor Jay Inslee". www.governor.wa.gov. February 11, 2014. Retrieved August 5, 2020.
  23. ^ Shannon, Brad (February 17, 2014). "Death Penalty Doubts Affirmed" (PDF). The Olympian. Retrieved September 9, 2020 – via Washington Courts.
  24. ^ "Gallagher Law Library University of Washington School of Law-Justice Robert French Utter, 1930-2014". University of Washington School of Law. Archived from the original on June 12, 2015. Retrieved June 11, 2015.
  25. ^ "Reed to receive Robert F. Utter Award". Washington Secretary of State. May 7, 2009. Archived from the original on January 15, 2019. Retrieved January 16, 2019.

External links

Political offices
Preceded by Justice of the Washington Supreme Court
1971–1995 		Succeeded by
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Robert_F._Utter&oldid=1174934723"