Votelaw, Edward Still's blog on law and politics

I just heard that David Cromwell Johnson died in his sleep last night. David and I worked together on just one case, the 1986 election contest between Bill Baxley and Charlie Graddick (for the Democratic nomination for governor). David was the head of the whole Baxley team, putting together a massive operation to check the signatures of Democratic runoff voters on the sign-in lists against those of Republican voters 3 weeks earlier. (There was a Democratic Party rule making those who had voted in the Republican Primary ineligible to vote in the Democratic runoff.) I was in charge of the brief writing and arguing of motions, appeals, etc.

Even then, David had a large reputation as a criminal attorney. Since then, his reputation has only grown. One of David's tactics was to attack the prosecution. I was still practicing in Washington DC when Gov. Don Siegelman hired David to represent him in the investigation the Republican US attorney had mounted against him. I told a lawyer with whom I was working about David's tactics and then was pleased to see he did it again in Siegelman's case. I told him that story when I talked to him recently. He laughed and said, "I had to do it, Ed. The US Attorney's office was leaking all sorts of damaging information. And you saw that it stopped after I filed my motion."

David was a great lawyer. He will be missed. Rest in peace, David.

UPDATE: the Birmingham News carried this story on David's life and death.