George Bundy Smith

George Bundy Smith (April 7, 1937 – August 5, 2017) was a lawyer and judge in New York State. While he was a law student at Yale University, he was part of the Freedom Ride from Atlanta, Georgia to Montgomery, Alabama. 

Smith was born in New Orleans, Louisiana. He was raised in Washington, D.C.. He studied at Phillips Academy and at Yale University.

Smith was a judge of the New York City Civil Court from 1975 to 1979 and a justice of the New York State Supreme Court from 1980 to 1986. In 1986, Governor Mario Cuomo appointed Smith to the Appellate Division, First Department, where he served from 1986 to 1992. Smith's best-known opinion for the Court was People v. LaValle, a 4-to-3 decision holding that New York's death penalty statute was unconstitutional due to the structure of its sentencing procedures.

In 2006, Governor George Pataki was urged to reappoint Smith to another term on the Court of Appeals, although Smith would have served only another 16 months on the Court before mandatory retirement at age 70.

Smith died on August 5, 2017 in Harlem, New York at the age of 80.

References

Other websites
 Ben Smith, "Judgement Day Approaches for George Bundy Smith", New York Daily News online, August 18, 2006 
 Remarks of Chief Judge Judith M. Kaye on presentation of Cromwell Award, December 13, 2005 

Category:1937 births
Category:2017 deaths
Category:American judges
Category:Lawyers from New Orleans
Category:American civil rights activists
Category:Politicians from New Orleans
Category:Politicians from Washington, D.C.
Category:Democratic Party (United States) politicians
Category:Yale University alumni
Category:Lawyers from Washington, D.C.