Gertz, Elmer
GERTZ, ELMER
GERTZ, ELMER (1906–2000), U.S. lawyer. Gertz, who was born in Chicago and received his law degree from the University of Chicago, practiced law in his native city from 1930. He became known for his vigorous opposition to capital punishment, his defense of freedom of expression, and his fight for civil rights and liberties. In 1958, taking over the case begun in 1924 by legendary litigator Clarence Darrow, he obtained parole for Nathan Leopold, who had been convicted of murder and served 34 years in prison. In 1962 he secured commutation of the death sentence of William Crump for murder, on the grounds that Crump had been rehabilitated in prison while surviving nine stays of execution. Gertz helped to save the life of William Witherspoon, another convicted murderer, when the U.S. Supreme Court (1968) upheld his contention that prospective jurors should not have been challenged for their conscientious scruples against imposing the death penalty. He was also instrumental in the setting aside of the death penalty imposed on Jack *Ruby (1966). Gertz's court pleas brought about the removal of the ban, on account of obscenity, on the sale of Frank Harris'My Life and Loves, Henry Miller's Tropic of Cancer (1964), and the works of the Marquis de Sade. He also secured the abolition by the U.S. Supreme Court of the Chicago motion picture censorship ordinance (1968). In the 1940s, as special counsel for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Gertz was successful in a test case to make housing restrictions in Illinois illegal. He helped secure passage of the Illinois Fair Employment Practices Law and defended its validity before the Illinois Supreme Court in the late 1950s.
Active in many Jewish communal affairs, Gertz was president of the Greater Chicago Council of the American Jewish Congress (1959–63). He served as an officer of the Society of Midland Authors and the Illinois Freedom to Read Committee. From 1970 until his death, he taught civil rights courses at the John Marshall Law School.
While serving as chairman of the Illinois Bill of Rights Committee of the Illinois Constitutional Convention (1969– 70), Gertz helped draft what has been called the strongest bill of rights of any state constitution in the country. Gertz also chaired the civil rights committees of the Illinois State Bar Association and the Chicago Bar Association (1978–80) and was president of the First Amendment Lawyers Association (1978–79). In 1983, he won a 14-year legal battle against the John Birch Society by suing its magazine publisher, Robert W. Welch, for libel in regard to an article written about him. This landmark case increased the instances in which a plaintiff could be deemed a private citizen and thus entitled to more protection against the press.
Among his many honors, Gertz was a national trustee of the City of Hope, for which he received the Golden Key Award in 1966. He received the State of Israel Prime Minister's Medal in 1972 (which he considered his greatest accomplishment), and Educator of the Year in 1975. In 2000, he was honored posthumously with the Illinois State Bar Association Medal of Merit. The association's highest honor for a practicing attorney, it is awarded only in extraordinary circumstances for exemplary accomplishments.
Books written by Gertz include Frank Harris: A Study in Black and White (1931, with A.I. Tobin), The People vs. The Chicago Tribune (1942), A Handful of Clients (1965), Momentof Madness: The People vs. Jack Ruby (1968), Quest for a Constitution (1984), To Life: The Story of a Chicago Lawyer (1990), Errors, Lies, and Libel (with P. Kane, 1991), and Gertz v. Robert Welch, Inc.: The Story of a Landmark Libel Case (1992).
bibliography:
M. Myerson and E.C. Banfield, Politics, Planning, and Public Interest (1955). add. bibliography: E. Gertz and F. Lewis (eds), Henry Miller: Years of Trial & Triumph, 1962–1964: The Correspondence of Henry Miller & Elmer Gertz (1978).
[Morton Mayer Berman /
Ruth Beloff (2nd ed.)]