Walter Burgwyn Jones

Walter Burgwyn Jones (October 16, 1888 – August 1, 1963) was an American judge, legislator, and writer from Alabama.^[1]

Political career

Jones served in the Alabama House of Representatives, as a Democrat, from 1919 to 1920. He was then a circuit court judge until 1935. Jones was a presiding judge from 1935 to 1963.^[2]

While presiding over New York Times Co. v. Sullivan in 1960, Jones ruled that the presence of an Alabama lawyer representing the New York Times contributed to the existence of a substantial business interest in the state of Alabama. This ruling ensured that the lawsuit would play out in his own courtroom. In so doing, he overruled his own book, Alabama Pleading and Practice.^[3] Jones was an avowed white-supremacist. While presiding in Sullivan, Jones began by lecturing against "racial agitators" and in praise of "white man's justice."^[4]

Personal life

Walter Burgwyn Jones was also a writer.^[5] His father was Thomas G. Jones, the Governor of Alabama.^[6] Jones went to Alabama Polytechnic Institute in 1906 and 1907. He then received his law degree in 1909 from the University of Alabama School of Law.^[7]

United States presidential election of 1956

In the 1956 Presidential election, faithless elector W. F. Turner cast his vote for Jones, who was a circuit court judge in Turner's home town, for President of the United States and Herman E. Talmadge for Vice President, instead of voting for Adlai Stevenson, and Estes Kefauver.^[8]

Published works

• Alabama practices and forms 1947
• Jones' equity pleading and practices 1954
• Confederate war poems 1959
• Alabama pleading and practice at law 1960
• Citizenship and voting in Alabama 1947
• Alabama secedes from the Union 1900
• Alabama jury instructions 1953
• John Burgwin, Carolinian, John Jones, Virginian, Their Ancestors and Descedents 1913

References