"Blessed are those who are fair and always do what’s right." ~ Psalm 106:3
Pre-trial hearings are seldom dramatic,
but this stage was set for theatrics. Arms waved. Fingers pointed. Voices
flared. The impending trial would be a spectacle of international attention.
But the Judge on the bench sat poker-faced. He reached for a
bottle of water with deliberate indifference as arguments escalated in a tale
of wealth, power, and deceit.
Although the Judge remained virtually silent while counselors
sparred for 40 minutes, he clearly was the most powerful person in the
courtroom. He had the authority to determine bail, impose gag orders, and
sanction lawyers for failing to play fair.
This particular Judge has a high tolerance for views he doesn’t
share which requires a great deal of intellectual humility. Beneath the robe beats
an unpretentious and compassionate heart.
Finally, in muted tones, the Judge briefly admonished the
two red-faced attorneys. To understand that soft voice and careful words, one
has to understand his past.
He grew up in rural South Carolina, the first in his family
born in a hospital. His mother left home for work as a domestic servant for a
Columbia University professor’s family in NYC. Raised by his aunt and
grandparent since age 3, he spent summers with his Mom in the city.
In high school, he worked in the principal’s office for a
man who repeatedly corrected his “country talk” language. Eventually, the boy developed a habit of
thinking carefully before he spoke.
After graduating as his class valedictorian, he attended Cleveland
State University, having never gone to school with a white student before. He opened
a law practice that handled mostly civil cases after completing law school.
Marriage, 4 children, and 24 years of appearing before the
bench, he decided to sit up behind the bench in a black robe. In 2000, the
Judge became one of only eight Black circuit court judges in South Carolina. In some counties people hadn’t seen a Black judge in over a decade.
Judge Clifton B. Newman, who presided over the trial of Alex
Murdaugh, represents the best of our jurists – a commanding presence yet reserved
and compassionate. Last week, the Judge sentenced the once-influential, wealthy
lawyer to spend the rest of his life behind bars - a powerful rebuke from the very
legal system that his family dominated for over a century.
Newman himself lost his son just
weeks before Murtaugh’s trial began, yet he maintained a stoic, quiet demeanor
throughout the proceedings. The optics of watching Newman, who grew up in the
state’s segregated schools, rule with such class, was the best we have to
witness.
