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Thursday, November 05, 2009
Retired Judge Dies at Lecture
By Scott Sandlin
Journal Staff Writer
Retired New Mexico Supreme Court Justice Gene Franchini died Wednesday doing what he loved best — talking about the confluence of law and ethics.
Franchini, 74, collapsed while speaking to the entire first-year law class at the University of New Mexico School of Law, telling them about his choice to leave the district court bench rather than impose what he believed was an unjust sentence in 1981.
Franchini
"He was an inspiration. He inspired the last two generations of law students," said professor Rob Schwartz, who was in the classroom at the time. "He was my hero, too."
Professor Jennifer Moore said the focus of the particular class was when law dictates one thing and conscience another. Franchini had five children at home when he quit his job over a matter of conscience, but he returned to the bench in 1990 as a member of the state's highest court, later serving as chief justice.
Teams of law students in the packed classroom performed CPR on Franchini until the ambulance arrived. Probably the last words he heard were from his beloved wife, Glynnie, who accompanied him to the lecture as she did to his many speaking engagements and called out to him as he fell.
Former Speaker of the House Raymond Sanchez and president of the UNM Board of Regents called Franchini one of his best friends and "the big brother I didn't have."
Sanchez noted Franchini died "lecturing on courage and conscience, which epitomized (him). He was what you want on the court at any level. He called things as he saw them based on the Constitution and the law without regard to whether they were politically correct."
New Mexico Supreme Court Chief Justice Edward Chávez said Franchini had an unmatched, energetic love for the justice system.
"He was just a man filled with life and love. I'm a far better lawyer for having known Gene Franchini," he said.
Even after he retired seven years ago, he continued his service to the justice system, Chávez said, working as an enthusiastic volunteer on the Judicial Performance Evaluation Commission he had helped to create.
Franchini was known as a staunch opponent of the death penalty, but it was a mandatory sentencing case that led him to quit the bench.
A Democrat, he was been appointed to the bench in 1975, won the general election and served as presiding judge before resigning. The case involved a legislatively mandated one-year prison sentence for a man who pulled a gun on another driver, but didn't use it, during an argument at an intersection. Franchini suspended the sentence but was reversed on appeal.
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