John Sirica

John Joseph Sirica (March 19, 1904 – August 14, 1992) was the Chief Judge for the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, where he became famous for his role in the Watergate scandal. He rose to national prominence during the Watergate scandal when he ordered President Richard Nixon to turn over his recordings of White House conversations.

Sirica's involvement in the case began when he presided over the trial of the Watergate burglars. He did not believe the claim that they had acted alone, and persuaded or coerced most of them to implicate the men who had arranged the break-in (G. Gordon Liddy remained silent). For his role in Watergate the judge was named TIME magazine's Man of the Year in 1973.

Early life

John Sirica was born in Waterbury, Connecticut, to Ferdinand and Rose (Zinno) Sirica, both of whom were Italian immigrants. He moved to Washington, D.C. in 1918, where he attended Emerson Preparatory School and eventually transferred to Columbia Preparatory School.[1] Sirica received his J.D. from the Georgetown University Law Center after doing undergraduate work at Duke University.[2]

Career

Sirica was in private practice of law in Washington, D.C. from 1926 to 1930. He was an Assistant United States Attorney for the District of Columbia from 1930 to 1934, and subsequently returned to private practice from 1934 to 1957. He also served as general counsel to the House Select Committee to Investigate the Federal Communications Commission in 1944; his appointment was opposed by the two Republican members of the committee.[3] However, Sirica resigned in protest over the committees's handling of the WMCA scandal that year.

He was a Republican and was appointed to the Court by President Dwight D. Eisenhower on February 25, 1957, to a seat vacated by Henry A. Schweinhaut. He was confirmed by the United States Senate on March 26 and received commission on March 28.

John Sirica had a largely undistinguished career before Watergate. Author Joseph Goulden wrote a book about federal judges called The Benchwarmers and mentioned that many lawyers appearing in Sirica's courtroom thought little of him or his abilities as a judge. Many complained about his short temper and careless legal errors. He was nicknamed "Maximum John" for giving defendants the maximum sentence guidelines allowed. Boxing champion Jack Dempsey was a close friend of his and was Sirica's best man at his marriage in 1952.

Sirica served as chief judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia from 1971 to 1974, and assumed senior status on October 31, 1977. Sirica published a novel, ghostwritten by John Stacks, detailing his participation in the Watergate affair in 1979 under the title To Set the Record Straight.

Death

Sirica suffered a severe heart attack on February 5, 1976, while at a speaking engagement.[4]

In the final years of his life, Sirica suffered from a wide range of ailments, minor and severe, related to his age. In the last few weeks of his life, he came down with pneumonia. He fell and broke his collarbone a few days before his death, and was hospitalized at Georgetown University Medical Center in Washington, D.C..[5] He died in the hospital of cardiac arrest at 4:30 p.m. on August 14, 1992.[4][6]

He was interred at Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Silver Spring, Maryland.[7] Sirica was survived by his wife, Lucile Camalier Sirica, and his three children, John Jr., Patricia, and Eileen.[6]

References

  1. ↑ Barnes, Bart (August 15, 1992). "John Sirica Obituary". The Washington Post. Retrieved February 1, 2007.
  2. ↑ "Sirica and Nixon: A High Stakes Contest Over Executive Privilege". Duke University School of Law. Retrieved March 12, 2014.
  3. ↑ "Sirica New House Probe Counsel". Broadcasting and Broadcast Advertising (Washington, D.C.: Broadcasting Publications, Inc.) 26 (14): 14. April 3, 1944.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 "Watergate Judge John Sirica Dies of Cardiac Arrest". Los Angeles Times. August 16, 1992.
  5. ↑ "Sirica, 88, Dies; Persistent Judge In Fall of Nixon". The New York Times. August 15, 1992.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Barnes, Bart (August 15, 1992). "John Sirica, Watergate Judge, Dies". The Washington Post.
  7. ↑ Franscell 2012, p. 92.

Bibliography

External links