Bill Baxley

Bill Baxley
(Photo courtesy Alabama Department of Archives and History)
24th Lieutenant Governor of Alabama
In office 1983–1987
Preceded by	George McMillan
Succeeded by	Jim Folsom, Jr.
41st Attorney General of Alabama
In office 1971–1979
Preceded by	MacDonald Gallion
Succeeded by	Charles Graddick
District Attorney Houston County
In office 1969–1971
Personal details
Born	June 27, 1941 ( 1941-06-27) Dothan, Houston County, Alabama, U.S.
Political party	Democratic
Spouse(s)	Marie Baxley
Children	5
Residence	Birmingham, Alabama
Religion	United Methodist

William Joseph Baxley II (born June 27, 1941) is an American Democratic politician and attorney. He was born in Dothan, Alabama and attended law school at the University of Alabama, graduating in 1964. He served two terms as Attorney General of Alabama, from 1971–1979; at the age of 27, he was the youngest to hold that position in U.S. History. He served one term as the 24th Lieutenant Governor of Alabama, from 1983-1987. During his time in politics, Baxley aggressively prosecuted industrial polluters, strip miners, and corrupt elected officials. Baxley appointed the state's first African American assistant attorney general, Myron Thompson, who later became a federal judge.

Baxley's tenure was noted for its racial unrest, and Baxley himself incurred the wrath of the Ku Klux Klan when he reopened the case of the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing. In a letter, the Klan threatened him, compared him to JFK, and made him an "honorary nigger", but Baxley responded, on official state letterhead: "My response to your letter of February 19, 1976, is--kiss my ass."

Church Bombing Case

As attorney general, Baxley was made famous for his most prestigious case against the Ku Klux Klan, his 1977 prosecution of Robert Chambliss for the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in September 1963.

"We know who did it," Alabama Atty. Baxley said Wednesday as he confirmed that he has reopened the investigation of a church bombing that killed four young black girls in Birmingham in 1963. Baxley said in an interview with Birmingham radio station that the list of suspects had been narrowed down, but he declined to predict if or when arrests would be made. He said premature published reports about the investigation might have hurt. "There are some people in Jefferson County who ought to be pretty nervous right now," Baxley said in an earlier telephone interview. The Sunday, Sept. 15, 1963, dynamite blast at the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church occurred during the time of racial demonstrations led by the late Martin Luther King. Twenty-three other people in the church were hurt and debris was scattered for blocks. Baxley later confirmed that he had talked to Rowe, and he was cooperative, "But we were working on this thing long before that. We had a lot of stuff already. Rowe was just another person we interviewed." He said Rowe didn't give him a list of names as such, "but nine is too many."

Baxley succeeded in convicting Chambliss with minimal evidence (as the FBI refused to relinquish tapes necessary to the case). The victory eased the minds of the parents of Addie Mae Collins, Carole Robertson, Cynthia Wesley and Denise McNair.

Runs for Governor

In 1978, Baxley, then the sitting Attorney General, ran to succeed the term-limited George Wallace as governor of Alabama. Baxley lost the Democratic primary to political newcomer Fob James, who went on to easily defeat Republican nominee Guy Hunt. Baxley's campaign leaned heavily on the fact that James had left the Democratic Party in the early 1970s, but then returned before the 1978 campaign. Baxley was endorsed by University of Alabama football coach Bear Bryant, who did not want to see James, a graduate of archrival Auburn University, in the governor's mansion.

Perennial candidate Hunt and questions of Democratic party loyalty both reappeared in another Baxley campaign eight years later. In 1986, the Democratic primary for the gubernatorial race saw Alabama Attorney General Charles Graddick in a runoff with Baxley, then the Lieutenant Governor. Graddick won by a few thousand votes, but Baxley appealed to the state Supreme Court, which ruled Graddick had violated primary regulations by encouraging Republicans to “cross over” and vote as Democrats. The court told the Democratic Party to hold another election or pick Baxley. The party picked Baxley.

Alabamians, used to a one-party state where the open-primary vote for the Democratic nomination was considered tantamount to election, were outraged and took out their frustrations by voting against Baxley and for H. Guy Hunt, the GOP nominee. Hunt won the election by a large margin, giving Alabama its first Republican governor since Reconstruction.

Current Life

Baxley is presently an attorney in Birmingham with the firm of Baxley, Dillard, Dauphin, McKnight & James. He has five children: Louis, Robert, Richard, Evelyn, and Johnson. He is currently married to Marie (Prat) Baxley. His former wife, Lucy Baxley, was the Lieutenant Governor of Alabama from 2003 to 2007. Baxley was a strong supporter of his ex-wife's campaign, giving political advice to her and contributed and raised over $250,000. Since 1962, Bill Baxley has served in the Alabama Army National Guard, beginning as an enlisted clerk and rising through the ranks to retire as Colonel on May 29, 2001 (though he turned down the position of General), JAG Corps.

In 1979, Baxley founded the firm known today as Baxley, Dillard, Dauphin, McKnight & James. He primarily represents large business corporations, yet continues to represent individuals of modest means. Those efforts have earned him the distinction of being selected as a Fellow in the International Academy of Trial Lawyers.^{[citation needed]}

Baxley appeared in the Spike Lee documentary Four Little Girls.

External links

• http://www.morelaw.com/lawyers/atty.asp?i=28062
• http://www.archives.state.al.us/conoff/baxley.html
• http://www.africanaonline.com/1977trial.htm
• http://www.useekufind.com/peace/trial.htm