Work As A U.S. District Judge
In 1978, Sarokin worked as the finance chairman for his friend Bill Bradley, who was running for a U.S. Senate seat to represent New Jersey. After Bradley won, he recommended Sarokin for a federal judgeship. On September 28, 1979, President Carter nominated Sarokin to a seat on the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey that had been vacated by Lawrence Whipple. The U.S. Senate confirmed Sarokin on October 31, 1979.
In 1985, Sarokin famously overturned the 1967 triple murder conviction of middleweight boxer Rubin Carter. Sarokin had ruled that Carter had not received a fair trial.
In 1988, Sarokin presided over a landmark cigarette liability lawsuit that resulted in a $400,000 payment to the estate of Rose Cipollone, who died in 1984 after smoking for 40 years. Although the case was reversed on appeal, it was the first cash award ever in a case involving a death from smoking.
In 1991, Sarokin ruled that a homeless man could not be barred from a public library in Morristown, New Jersey because of his odor. That order eventually was overturned.
Read more about this topic: H. Lee Sarokin
Famous quotes containing the words work, district and/or judge:
“Drive a nail home and clinch it so faithfully that you can wake up in the night and think of your work with satisfaction,—a work at which you would not be ashamed to invoke the Muse.”
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“The soul is a very perfect judge of her own motions, if your mind doesn’t dictate to her.”
—D.H. (David Herbert)