Charles Graddick
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Charles Allen Graddick Sr. (born December 10, 1944, in Mobile), is an American politician who served as the 42nd attorney general of Alabama from 1979 to 1987. He later served as a judge of the 13th Judicial Circuit Court of the
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of
Alabama Alabama ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South, Deep Southern regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gu ...
.


Background

Graddick graduated in 1963 from the all-male University Military School in Mobile. The institution was the forerunner of UMS-Wright Preparatory School. In 1967, he received his undergraduate degree from the
University of Alabama The University of Alabama (informally known as Alabama, UA, the Capstone, or Bama) is a Public university, public research university in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, United States. Established in 1820 and opened to students in 1831, the University of ...
at
Tuscaloosa Tuscaloosa ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Tuscaloosa County, Alabama, Tuscaloosa County in west-central Alabama, United States, on the Black Warrior River where the Gulf Coastal Plain, Gulf Coastal and Piedmont (United States), Piedm ...
, where he was a member of
Delta Kappa Epsilon Delta Kappa Epsilon (), commonly known as ''DKE'' or ''Deke'', is one of the oldest Fraternities and sororities, fraternities in the United States, with fifty-six active chapters and five active Colony (fraternity or sorority), colonies across No ...
fraternity. In 1970, Graddick obtained his
Juris Doctor A Juris Doctor, Doctor of Jurisprudence, or Doctor of Law (JD) is a graduate-entry professional degree that primarily prepares individuals to practice law. In the United States and the Philippines, it is the only qualifying law degree. Other j ...
from the
Cumberland School of Law The Cumberland School of Law is an American Bar Association, ABA-accredited law school at Samford University in Homewood, Alabama, United States. It was founded in 1847 at Cumberland University in Lebanon, Tennessee and is the 11th oldest law sch ...
in
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, having been chosen the class president. In 1975, at the age of thirty, he was elected
District Attorney In the United States, a district attorney (DA), county attorney, county prosecutor, state attorney, state's attorney, prosecuting attorney, commonwealth's attorney, or solicitor is the chief prosecutor or chief law enforcement officer represen ...
of Mobile County. Graddick, who served as Alabama’s Attorney General from 1979 to 1987, has always been a proponent of the tough on crime mindset and lengthy sentences. Under his watch, Alabama's prison system became known as one of the harshest in the United States. He wrote Alabama’s infamous habitual offender law, which punishes people with a life sentence for drug and property crimes. He justified it by referring to all offenders as “career criminals”. However, those “career criminals” were mostly poor and Afro-american young males, who were sentenced in their late teens or early twenties to a mandatory life without parole for crimes like robbery, theft and burglar

In 2019, the DOJ released a scathing report, citing overcrowding, widespread violence and corruption in Alabama’s prisons, and gave leaders a deadline to implement changes

Graddick made a career using inflammatory rhetoric about people in the criminal justice system. He infamously promised to “fry them until their eyeballs pop out and smoke comes out of their ears.” He maintains a zealous support for Capital punishment, executions, despite known wrongful convictions and a racial disparity on Alabama’s death ro

As Attorney General, he blocked efforts to reduce the prison population and fought against rehabilitative programs. When he ran unsuccessfully for Governor, he promised to make sure Alabama prisons remained brutal for people serving time. “The next Governor needs to make sure our prisons look more like prisons and less like welcome centers,” he told a crowd of supporter

After almost 20 years in the private practice of law, he was appointed as circuit judge in 2004 and was elected twice thereafter without opposition. He Served as Presiding Judge for 10 years. After retirement from the State Court Bench, Judge Graddick was appointed Senior Judicial Advisor to the Mayor of Mobile and Director of Courts. In 1966, Graddick married the former Corinne Whiting. The couple has three children, Charles Allen Jr., Herndon Whiting, and Corinne and six grandchildren.


1986 gubernatorial race

The 1986 Alabama United States Democratic Party, Democratic primary for governor featured Attorney General Graddick in a heated runoff with then
Lieutenant Governor A lieutenant governor, lieutenant-governor, or vice governor is a high officer of state, whose precise role and rank vary by jurisdiction. Often a lieutenant governor is the deputy, or lieutenant, to or ranked under a governor — a "second-in-comm ...
Bill Baxley William Joseph Baxley II (born June 27, 1941), is an American Democratic Party (United States), Democratic politician and attorney from Dothan, Alabama. In 1964, Baxley graduated from the University of Alabama School of Law in Tuscaloosa, Alaba ...
. Graddick won by almost ten thousand votes, but the state Democratic party ruled that he had violated a party rule by encouraging
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to vote in the Democratic primary. The court later instructed the Democratic Party either to hold another election or determine whether the crossover votes affected the outcome of the election. After a Party meeting the Party nominated Baxley. Like
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,
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, and
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, Alabama does not register voters by party. At that time, the Democratic party had never enforced such a rule in any election because Alabama was a one-party state. Many Alabama voters opposed the democratic party hierarchy action and therefore voted in protest against Baxley and for H. Guy Hunt, the Republican nominee. Though he was previously considered a token candidate, Hunt won easily and became the first Alabama Republican governor since
Reconstruction Reconstruction may refer to: Politics, history, and sociology *Reconstruction (law), the transfer of a company's (or several companies') business to a new company *''Perestroika'' (Russian for "reconstruction"), a late 20th century Soviet Union ...
. Hunt's election surprised many, since no living person had witnessed a Republican winning the election for governor of Alabama. The media had paid little attention to the Republican gubernatorial primaries, fully expecting that the GOP nominee would be the next loser in the general election. After the campaign for governor in 1986, Graddick established a statewide law practice. At the request of Governor Hunt in 1991 filled an unexpired one year term as district attorney for Montgomery County. He returned to private practice in 1992. Subsequently, Republican Governor
Bob Riley Robert Renfroe Riley (born October 3, 1944) is an American retired politician and businessman who served as the 52nd governor of Alabama from 2003 to 2011. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he was the U.S. Hous ...
appointed Graddick to fill the post left vacant when Judge William McDermott of the 13th Judicial Circuit Court died in office in May 2004. Graddick was elected in January 2005 to serve a six-year term in the same post. He was selected by his fellow circuit judges to serve as the presiding judge of the 13th Judicial Circuit until his retirement in 2017.


Switching parties

In 2011, Graddick declared his candidacy for Chief Justice of the
Alabama Supreme Court The Supreme Court of Alabama is the highest court in the state of Alabama. The court consists of a chief justice and eight associate justices. Each justice is elected in partisan elections for staggered six-year terms. The Supreme Court is hous ...
, in the Republican primary held on March 13, 2012. Graddick opposed current chief justice, Charles "Chuck" Malone, and former Chief Justice
Roy Moore Roy Stewart Moore (born February 11, 1947) is an American politician, lawyer, and jurist who served as chief justice of the Supreme Court of Alabama from 2001 to 2003 and again from 2013 to 2017, each time being removed from office for judic ...
. Both Graddick and Malone had lobbied Governor
Robert J. Bentley Robert Julian Bentley (born February 3, 1943) is an American former politician and physician who served as the 53rd governor of Alabama from 2011 until 2017 upon his resignation following his arrest after a sex scandal involving a political aide ...
for his appointment to replace then Chief Justice Sue Bell Cobb, who stepped down before her term expired. Roy Moore held the chief justiceship from 2001 to 2003, when he was removed from office over the
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dispute which received national attention. In a bid to return to his former position, in spite of all the pre-election day polls showing Graddick leading, Moore won nearly 51 percent of the ballots in the 2012 primary, having defeated both Malone and Graddick. Moore faced the Democrat Harry Lyon in the general election scheduled for November 6, 2012, only to be kicked off the ballot by the Democratic Party to be replaced by their hand-picked nominee, Robert Vance. Moore won the seat in the general election. In September 2019, Graddick was appointed by Governor
Kay Ivey Kay Ellen Ivey ( ; born October 15, 1944) is an American politician who is the 54th governor of Alabama, serving since 2017. A Republican since 2002, Ivey was the 38th Alabama state treasurer from 2003 to 2011 and the 30th lieutenant governor o ...
to lead the Alabama Bureau of Pardons and Paroles as the Director of the agency. This was the first gubernatorial appointment to the directorship. Prior to Graddick's appointment, directors were appointed by the three members of the Board of Pardons and Paroles.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Graddick, Charles 1944 births Alabama attorneys general Lawyers from Mobile, Alabama Living people Alabama Democrats Alabama Republicans District attorneys in Alabama University of Alabama alumni Cumberland School of Law alumni Alabama state court judges Alabama National Guard personnel Politicians from Mobile, Alabama