George T Davis, global lawyer, from Nuremberg to Philippines

HONOLULU – George T Davis, a San Francisco lawyer whose storied career took him from the post-World War II Nuremberg trials to the Philippines, has died at 98.

Davis died last month of heart failure on Hawaii’s Big Island, where he had lived since 1980. Davis, who had clients around the world and once played himself in a movie, tried cases that made headlines across four decades, placing him among America’s most famous trial attorneys.He ran the Northern California presidential campaigns of Presidents Franklin D Roosevelt and Harry Truman, and his wife said he also advised President Jimmy Carter.Davis’ most notable cases were the failed death penalty appeal of California prison inmate Caryl Chessman in 1960 and his success in getting a pardon for San Francisco labour organiser Tom Mooney who was convicted in 1916.Mooney had been in prison for 21 years, convicted of throwing a bomb that killed 10 people in a Market Street crowd.Other clients included Philippine opposition leader Benigno Aquino, assassinated in 1983; evangelist Jim Bakker, whose ministry was plagued by scandal; and Alfried Krupp, heir to the German munitions empire who was convicted in 1948 of war crimes at the Nuremberg trials.In the mid-1990s, the Hawaii Senate paid tribute to Davis with a resolution praising his legal career and describing him as a “champion of the downtrodden”, a musician, a sometime movie star, and a patron of culture and arts.”He had a wonderful life,” said his widow in a telephone interview from her home at Mauna Lani Resort on the Big Island’s Kohala Coast.Davis’ connection to Hawaii went back to 1926, she said, when he came to Honolulu as a teenager playing drums and trumpet.As a musician, he got paid top dollar to sit in with some of the most famous orchestras of the Big Band era.”George had a long love affair with the islands,” Mrs Davis said.He had a ranch on the Big Island and was an avid polo player and a Hawaiian-style cowboy, she said.Davis, who graduated from Boalt Hall School of Law in 1931, played himself in the 1956 movie ‘The People Against McQuade’, starring Tab Hunter and James Garner.The movie was based on the real-life case of a man who murdered his philandering wife, but the names were changed for the film.Davis persuaded the judge to admit a secretly taped conversation of the defendant speaking after taking a truth serum, resulting in an acquittal.Davis defended clients in more than 200 first-degree murder cases, Mrs Davis said, including Aquino, who was accused by Philippine President Ferdinand E Marcos’ government of murdering a political opponent.Davis persuaded Marcos to release Aquino from prison and send him to the US, where he lived in Boston for seven years, lecturing at Harvard, before returning to Manila where was shot down while getting off the plane.His widow, Corazon Aquino, became president of the Philippines after Marcos’ ouster.One of his most memorable cases was the Chessman appeal.Known as the Red Light Bandit, Chessman was on California’s death row for kidnapping, robbery and rape.But he had written four books from San Quentin and his case drew attention around the world.Davis claimed he could have saved Chessman’s life if not for a secretary’s mistake.On May 2 1960, Chessman was about to be executed, when Davis convinced the judge to grant a stay and ordered the secretary to dial the warden.As Davis told it, she missed a number and by the time she got through, the gas pellets had dropped.In Hawaii, Davis got flamboyant con man Sammy Amalu out of prison.In 1962, Amalu almost managed to buy the Sheraton-Waikiki Hotel and other prime Hawaii properties for US$75 million even though he didn’t have any money.- Nampa-APDavis, who had clients around the world and once played himself in a movie, tried cases that made headlines across four decades, placing him among America’s most famous trial attorneys.He ran the Northern California presidential campaigns of Presidents Franklin D Roosevelt and Harry Truman, and his wife said he also advised President Jimmy Carter.Davis’ most notable cases were the failed death penalty appeal of California prison inmate Caryl Chessman in 1960 and his success in getting a pardon for San Francisco labour organiser Tom Mooney who was convicted in 1916.Mooney had been in prison for 21 years, convicted of throwing a bomb that killed 10 people in a Market Street crowd.Other clients included Philippine opposition leader Benigno Aquino, assassinated in 1983; evangelist Jim Bakker, whose ministry was plagued by scandal; and Alfried Krupp, heir to the German munitions empire who was convicted in 1948 of war crimes at the Nuremberg trials.In the mid-1990s, the Hawaii Senate paid tribute to Davis with a resolution praising his legal career and describing him as a “champion of the downtrodden”, a musician, a sometime movie star, and a patron of culture and arts.”He had a wonderful life,” said his widow in a telephone interview from her home at Mauna Lani Resort on the Big Island’s Kohala Coast.Davis’ connection to Hawaii went back to 1926, she said, when he came to Honolulu as a teenager playing drums and trumpet.As a musician, he got paid top dollar to sit in with some of the most famous orchestras of the Big Band era.”George had a long love affair with the islands,” Mrs Davis said.He had a ranch on the Big Island and was an avid polo player and a Hawaiian-style cowboy, she said.Davis, who graduated from Boalt Hall School of Law in 1931, played himself in the 1956 movie ‘The People Against McQuade’, starring Tab Hunter and James Garner.The movie was based on the real-life case of a man who murdered his philandering wife, but the names were changed for the film.Davis persuaded the judge to admit a secretly taped conversation of the defendant speaking after taking a truth serum, resulting in an acquittal.Davis defended clients in more than 200 first-degree murder cases, Mrs Davis said, including Aquino, who was accused by Philippine President Ferdinand E Marcos’ government of murdering a political opponent.Davis persuaded Marcos to release Aquino from prison and send him to the US, where he lived in Boston for seven years, lecturing at Harvard, before returning to Manila where was shot down while getting off the plane.His widow, Corazon Aquino, became president of the Philippines after Marcos’ ouster.One of his most memorable cases was the Chessman appeal.Known as the Red Light Bandit, Chessman was on California’s death row for kidnapping, robbery and rape.But he had written four books from San Quentin and his case drew attention around the world.Davis claimed he could have saved Chessman’s life if not for a secretary’s mistake.On May 2 1960, Chessman was about to be executed, when Davis convinced the judge to grant a stay and ordered the secretary to dial the warden.As Davis told it, she missed a number and by the time she got through, the gas pellets had dropped.In Hawaii, Davis got flamboyant con man Sammy Amalu out of prison.In 1962, Amalu almost managed to buy the Sheraton-Waikiki Hotel and other prime Hawaii properties for US$75 million even though he didn’t have any money.- Nampa-AP