Frank Howell Seay (born September 5, 1938) is an inactive

senior Senior (shortened as Sr.) means "the elder" in Latin and is often used as a suffix for the elder of two or more people in the same family with the same given name, usually a parent or grandparent. It may also refer to: * Senior (name), a surname ...

United States district judge The United States district courts are the trial courts of the U.S. federal judiciary. There is one district court for each federal judicial district. Each district covers one U.S. state or a portion of a state. There is at least one feder ...

of the

United States District Court for the Eastern District of Oklahoma The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Oklahoma (in case citations, E.D. Okla. or E.D. Ok.) is a federal court in the Tenth Circuit (except for patent claims and claims against the U.S. government under the Tucker Act, whic ...

Education and career

Seay was born in

Shawnee, Oklahoma Shawnee () is a city in and the county seat of Pottawatomie County, Oklahoma, Pottawatomie County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 29,857 in 2010, a 4.9 percent increase from the figure of 28,692 in 2000. The city is part of the Oklah ...

. He received a

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

degree from

University of Oklahoma The University of Oklahoma (OU) is a Public university, public research university in Norman, Oklahoma, United States. Founded in 1890, it had existed in Oklahoma Territory near Indian Territory for 17 years before the two territories became the ...

in 1961. He received a

Bachelor of Laws A Bachelor of Laws (; LLB) is an undergraduate law degree offered in most common law countries as the primary law degree and serves as the first professional qualification for legal practitioners. This degree requires the study of core legal subje ...

from

University of Oklahoma College of Law The University of Oklahoma College of Law is the law school of the University of Oklahoma. It is located on the University's campus in Norman, Oklahoma. The College of Law was founded in 1909 by a resolution of the OU Board of Regents. Accordi ...

in 1963. He was in private practice of law in

Seminole, Oklahoma Seminole () is a city in Seminole County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 7,488 at the 2010 census. Seminole experienced a large population growth in the 1920s due to an oil boom. History The city was platted in 1906 as a relocatio ...

from 1963 to 1966. He was the county attorney of

Seminole County, Oklahoma Seminole County is a county located in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. As of the 2020 census, the population was 23,556. Its county seat is Wewoka. Most of the county was a reservation for the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma which still retains juris ...

from 1963 to 1966. He was the first assistant district attorney of 22nd Judicial District of Oklahoma from 1967 to 1968. He was an Associate judge of the District Court of Oklahoma in Seminole County from 1968 to 1974. He was a judge of the 22nd Judicial District Court of Oklahoma from 1974 to 1979.

Federal judicial service

Seay was nominated by President

Jimmy Carter James Earl Carter Jr. (October 1, 1924December 29, 2024) was an American politician and humanitarian who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party ...

on September 28, 1979, to a seat on the

vacated by Judge

Joseph Wilson Morris Joseph Wilson Morris (April 28, 1922 – November 11, 2021) was an American attorney, arbitrator and United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Oklahoma. He was a partner in the Tulsa, Oklahoma l ...

. He was confirmed by the

United States Senate The United States Senate is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the upper house, with the United States House of Representatives, U.S. House of Representatives being the lower house. Together, the Senate and ...

on October 31, 1979, and received his commission on November 2, 1979. He served as Chief Judge from 1980 to 1996. He assumed senior status on September 25, 2003. As of 2020, Seay is the last judge appointed by a Democratic president to the Eastern District of Oklahoma.

Ada affair

Seay was instrumental in reversing the miscarriages of justice that led to the convictions of Ron Williamson and Dennis Fritz for the murder of Debbie Carter in

Ada, Oklahoma Ada is a city in and the county seat of Pontotoc County, Oklahoma, Pontotoc County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 16,481 at the 2020 United States census. The city was named for Ada Reed, the daughter of an early settler, and was in ...

, events that were documented in John Grisham's non-fiction book '' The Innocent Man''. He is quoted as attaching to an epilogue of his legal opinion: "God help us, if ever in this great country we turn our heads while people who have not had fair trials are executed. That almost happened in this case".

Personal

Seay's paternal grandfather was a full-blooded Native American. Seay did not discover his Native American heritage, likely

Cherokee The Cherokee (; , or ) people are one of the Indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands of the United States. Prior to the 18th century, they were concentrated in their homelands, in towns along river valleys of what is now southwestern ...

, until after he was appointed to the federal bench. Nevertheless, Seay was the first Native American appointed to a federal bench in the United States.

References

Sources