Wednesday, March 24, 2004

Bristol's own retired Judge Flannagan gets Carrico Award from State Judicial Council

As reported here on the Virginia judiciary website, the Judicial Council of Virginia selected retired Judge Charles B. Flannagan II of the 28th Judicial Circuit "as the first recipient of the Honorable Harry L. Carrico Outstanding Career Service Award."

Judge Flannagan has been the hometown judge in the courthouse up the street throughout my career, a good and pleasant fellow who did the job right, as about everyone who knows him would agree. At one time, Judge Flannagan gave a series of speeches to community service groups and the like about legal history in this circuit. He would take out the noose that was used for the last hanging. Another time he and I got to discussing the history of abortion laws in the United States, and I loaned him my copy of the Mohr book, Abortion in America: The Origins and Evolution of National Policy, 1800-1900. Judge Flannagan instituted or reinstituted portrait hangings of judges in the Bristol courthouse, mainly I think because he felt like some of his predecessors deserved more recognition, particularly Judge Joseph L. Cantwell, Jr., who served as Corporation Court judge for the Circuit of Bristol for roughly 30 years until the late 1960s. Judge Flannagan was also interested in the use of technology, an Internet and e-mail user.

You can't beat a judge who is friendly, capable, and interesting in learning about things old and new.

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