GA: stand up, a great man is passing

From WJBF:

A local lawyer loses his fight with kidney cancer. Jack Boone was a public defender who took on a lot of unpopular cases. The District Attorney says he had a tremendous insight into human nature, which made him an outstanding trial lawyer. He also said Boone was a great mentor to young lawyers and will be missed. Boone leaves behind a wife and two sons. He was 53.

From the Augusta Chronicle(registration required):

Like a real-life Atticus Finch, Augusta attorney Jack E. Boone Jr. fought fearlessly for the least-popular cases and the underprivileged, and finally against kidney cancer until the disease claimed him late Sunday night. He was 53. As with the hero of To Kill A Mockingbird, a favorite book, he was remembered by colleagues and courtroom foes as a principled but zealous defender who never let the fight become personal.

"We tried many cases against each other and many of them were hotly contested and our friendship grew with each trial," said Augusta Judicial Circuit District Attorney Danny Craig, who faced off against Mr. Boone in death penalty trials. None of his clients received the death penalty, which Mr. Boone adamantly opposed. The son of a policeman who died in the line of duty, Mr. Boone was introduced to the courtroom as a boy and later turned from being a minister to pursue law. He worked two jobs to put himself through law school.

That determination showed for his clients, said Atlanta defense attorney Bruce Harvey. "He was a streetfighter, a guy who never gave up. He never gave up his principles and never compromised his principles," Mr. Harvey said. "He will always be someone that we'll remember and remember fondly." He was good-natured and was always the first to make fun of his gray-flecked ponytail, said former Assistant District Attorney Willie Saunders. "'I'm having a midlife crisis,' is what he would tell the jury," Mr. Saunders said. "But a heck of a trial attorney. You better have your ducks in a row and lined up or he was going to run roughshod on you."

Yet it was never out-of-bounds or under-handed, said Augusta Judicial Circuit Superior Court Judge Neal W. Dickert, who tried cases against Mr. Boone as an attorney. Still, "he was never intimidated by anybody or anything in the sense that he was prepared to do what he needed to do to represent his client," Judge Dickert said.

That was because he was guided by his own counsel, said his wife, Julie. "He was his own man," she said. "He didn't play the games. He shot from the hip and told it like it was and expected everyone to do what they were supposed to do." Joining the public defender's office a couple of years ago was a good fit for him. Mrs. Boone said. "As he got older, I told him it was time to pass the fire on to others," she said. That is certainly something he passed on to his children, said son Jack E. Boone III. "If he could be remembered for one thing, I think it would be that he was a servant of the common man," he said...