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Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Ind. Courts - CJ Shepard changes speech title; here is the backstory

When the ILB learned on Sunday that the CJ's press office was announcing a change to what had become an unfortunate title for the State of Judiciary address, it didn't seem to be a story. Today, however, Maureen Hayden, now the statehouse bureau chief for CNHI’s Indiana newspapers, and who for many years reported for the Evansville Courier & Press, has provided the backstory. Some quotes from the CNHI story, as published today in the Terre Haute Tribune Star:

INDIANAPOLIS — After the weekend shooting of an Arizona congresswoman, Indiana Supreme Court Chief Justice Randall Shepard changed the title of a speech he’s scheduled to give Wednesday at the Indiana Statehouse.

On Monday, his staff announced that his State of the Judiciary speech has been retitled from “The Gang That Could Shoot Straight‚” to “Burdened but Unbowed.” * * *

“I liked it better before the congresswoman was shot than after,” said a somber Shepard.

It wasn’t just political correctness that he had in mind. Thirty years ago, Shepard’s political mentor, friend and former boss, Evansville Mayor Russell Lloyd Sr., was shot and killed by a deranged woman less than three months after leaving office. Shepard had served as Lloyd’s executive assistant.

The news over the weekend that U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona had been shot along with 18 others while outside a Tucson grocery store brought back painful memories, Shepard said. * * *

The Lloyd tragedy was marked by a seemingly senseless act of violence as well. On March 19, 1980, Lloyd was shot and killed after answering the door of his home. The shooter was a mentally ill woman who was angry with city officials over a dispute involving her home. She thought Lloyd was still mayor, even though he’d left office almost three months earlier. Julie Van Orden was found guilty but mentally ill in the Lloyd killing. She served 20 years of her prison sentence and became eligible for early release in 2000. But just days before she was to be set free, a judge ordered her to be committed to the Logansport State Hospital for mental evaluation. While there, she stabbed a psychiatric worker and was later convicted and sentenced to 50 years for attempted murder.

The deadly incident in Tucson was on the mind of other officials in the Statehouse as well.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on January 11, 2011 09:19 AM
Posted to Indiana Courts