Source URL: http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2010-04-07/story/after-31-years-bench-jurist-takes-senior-status
By Jessie-Lynne Kerr
U.S. District Judge Henry Lee Adams Jr. is accustomed to making history.
In 1979 at age 34, he was appointed by then-Gov. Bob Graham as the first black judge of the state’s 4th Judicial Circuit and the fourth black circuit judge in Florida. He filled a vacancy created when Judge Susan Black was appointed to the federal bench.
On the eve of his state court investiture, Adams said, “It’s a great feeling. I kind of cracked the door. The day is rapidly approaching when it won’t be uncommon to see black faces in black robes.”
When the new federal courthouse opened at Hemming Plaza, Adams chose an office facing east so he could look out and be reminded of where he came from — Jacksonville’s Eastside — where he said the first white person he got to know was the insurance debit man who came to the area weekly to collect life insurance premiums.
On Friday, the day after his 65th birthday, Adams will assume senior status. He will still hear cases, but with a reduced workload. A ceremony beginning at 4:30 p.m. Friday on the 10th floor of the courthouse is being sponsored by the Jacksonville Chapter of the Federal Bar Association and will include the unveiling of his portrait.
“It is time to back away a bit,” Adams said in a recent interview about his 31 years as a judge in state and federal courts. “I’d like to try something else, such as learn how to play golf.”
Adams also wants to take a couple of classes in American history but has no intention of teaching. “I don’t want another job,” he said.
Life of achievements, firsts
Senior U.S. District Judge Harvey Schlesinger, Adams’ daily lunch partner, not only praised the jurist as “a dedicated public servant” but also for his sense of humor.
“I not only enjoy his conversation but it gives us a break in the seriousness of what we have to do in our courtrooms,” said Schlesinger, who has known Adams for almost 40 years.
Jacksonville lawyer Bill Sheppard said his biggest accomplishment as a lawyer the past 40 years was forming the first integrated law firm in the state when Adams joined with him and Lyman Fletcher. They later added Jack G. Hand Jr. and Hugh Carithers, now a state circuit judge.
Sheppard, a native of southeastern Oregon where he said he didn’t see a black person until he was 16, had worked at one of Jacksonville’s silk stocking law firms before he and Fletcher struck out on their own. Introduced to Adams by a paralegal who was involved in inner-city activities, Sheppard said having Adams become a partner in the young firm changed his life.
“There were only nine black lawyers in Jacksonville at the time, 1972, and the white members of the Bar were shocked,” he said. “After all, the city had experienced race riots just the year before.”
Sheppard had concentrated on civil rights law until Adams joined his firm. “He taught me how to be a criminal lawyer because of his experience in the public defender’s office,” Sheppard said.
In 1980 while a state circuit judge sitting in Fernandina Beach, Adams gained notice when he overturned a jury’s recommendation of the death penalty for a white man found guilty of killing a black convenience store clerk and instead sentenced him to life imprisonment.
The case marked the first time in Florida history that a black judge decided the fate of a white man convicted of killing an African-American.
He presided over the worst police corruption case in Jacksonville history in 2002 when a federal court jury found former Jacksonville police officer Karl Waldon guilty in the 1998 killing of businessman Sami Safar. Waldon escaped the death penalty when the jury could not agree that he committed the murder for profit. Adams sentenced him to life in prison.
Adams said he is personally opposed to the death penalty, feeling it should be reserved for unusually atrocious killings. But he has handled some death cases. “It was difficult to do, but I did it,” he said.
While serving on the Juvenile Court, Adams said most of the kids he saw tended to see the light of day at about age 18 and straighten out.
“I have seen the misery of young people strung out on dope,” he said, “but I also have had younger people thank me for how I treated them when I was sitting in Juvenile Court. They tell me the experience taught them how to get on the right path with their life and that makes you feel good.”
Adams has handled his share of cases in the field of civil rights and discrimination, as well.
“I have had a number of cases that affected some big companies and made them change their practices and procedures involving their employees,” he said, “and those companies and employees now are doing very well.”
Adams was nominated in 1993 for the federal bench by President Bill Clinton on the recommendation of Graham, again succeeding Black, who was elevated to the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals.
Remembering where it began
Adams was the son of a foundry worker and a teacher’s aide. His parents insisted their three children get college educations, and Adams’ sister became a teacher while his brother also became a lawyer.
He said he decided to become a lawyer in the late 1950s because of his admiration of Ernest Jackson and Earl Johnson, two lawyers who were active in Jacksonville’s civil rights movement.
After graduating from Matthew Gilbert High School, Adams received a bachelor’s degree in political science from Florida A&M University. He received his law degree from Howard University in 1969. After law school, he received a Reginald Heber Smith federally funded fellowship that returned him to Jacksonville to work for Duval County Legal Aid.
He was an assistant public defender from 1969 to 1972 and then went into private practice. He is a past president of the D.W. Perkins Bar Association and serves on the boards of Communities in Schools and the Jacksonville Public Education Fund.
Adams has been married for 42 years to the former Bernice Elaine Harris. They have two children, Cheryl Taylor and Henry Lee Adams III, called Hank, a student at Florida Coastal School of Law.
The judge has three grandchildren with whom he looks forward to spending more time with a reduced court schedule.
jessie-lynne.kerr@jacksonville.com,
(904) 359-4374
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