Alverson, longtime judge, dies at 94

ATLANTA - Luther A. Alverson, who was the longest-serving full-time Superior Court judge in Georgia and a principal sponsor of bail reform, died Friday. He was 94. <br> <br> Alverson died of pneumonia at Portsbridge Hospice in Dunwoody. <br> <br> The barber-turned-lawyer served as a state representative from 1949 to 1952, then was appointed to Fulton County Criminal Court in 1952. <br> <br> He was elected to Superior Court in 1956 and was re-elected to that court until his retirement in 1995. <br> <br> When asked why he didn&#39;t retire earlier, Alverson once said, ``When I come in in the morning they call me &#39;Your honor.&#39; When I leave they call me &#39;Your honor.&#39; When I enter the courtroom, everybody stands up. Now why would I want to give that up?&#39;&#39; <br> <br> Perhaps Alverson&#39;s greatest contribution to law was his bail release program, which he started in 1960. <br> <br> Observing that those who could not make bond were ``denied due process of law by virtue of being poor,&#39;&#39; Alverson began releasing people on their own recognizance if they could meet certain criteria. <br> <br> He teamed up with other judges to write the Bail Reform Act of 1966 to create a federal bail release program. <br> <br> In 1976, the Trial Lawyers of America named Alverson the country&#39;s most outstanding trial court judge. <br> <br> Alverson presided over the 1957 bribery trial of Atlanta gambling kingpin Horace Ingram. Ingram was convicted of bribing Atlanta police officers with hams and liquor, although the officers were acquitted. <br> <br> A major censorship suit also landed in Alverson&#39;s courtroom. He ruled in 1961 that the film ``Never on Sunday&#39;&#39; which detractors said was harmful to children for its portrayal of a happy prostitute was protected by the state constitution&#39;s free speech clause. <br> <br> Alverson ruled in 1984 that former Gov. George Busbee was not entitled to a $57,000-per-year pension. Busbee, who had claimed he should receive the pension because he was limited by law to two terms as governor, said he would wait until he was 60 and apply for a normal pension. <br> <br> Alverson is survived by his wife, two daughters, three grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

http://accesswdun.com/article/2002/3/198066