Carl Maxey, Later Years

Edited from the writings of Jim Kershner
By Dale Raugust

(Jim Kershner has written several articles on Carl Maxey and a biography, Carl Maxey, A Fighter’s Life which was published in July, 2008. A copy may be ordered from Amazon.com. or from any quality book store. Sources and quotes are used with the permission of Jim Kershner)


“In the 1960s and 1970s, Carl Maxey threw himself into politics. He ran, unsuccessfully for several local offices. He became presidential candidate Eugene McCarthy’s (1916-2005) state spokesman in 1968 and witnessed firsthand the turmoil and violence of the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago. By this time Maxey had become staunchly anti-Vietnam-War. When a Gonzaga University student body president was arrested for shouting “Warmonger” at Vice-President Spiro Agnew during a speech, Maxey successfully defended him.”

“In 1970 Maxey ran a quixotic primary race for U. S. Senator against one of the nations leading hawks, Washington’s longtime Democratic Senator Henry “Scoop” Jackson (1912-1983).” Maxey got 13 percent of the vote, more than even he expected. The attention from the campaign helped Maxey “land the most controversial and highly publicized case of his career: The trial of the Seattle Seven. The Seattle Seven were members of an anti-war group called the Seattle Liberation Front, which in 1970 organized an anti-war demonstration in front of Seattle’s Federal Courthouse.” When the police tried to break up the demonstration it turned violent. The seven were charged with “conspiracy to riot and destroy public property.” The trial began in Tacoma in November, 1970 before U.S. District Court Judge George Bolt who was determined to not have another chaotic Chicago Seven trial from the year before, yet two weeks into the trial most of the defendants were slapped with contempt charges. When they returned to court to answer to the contempt charges a riot broke out. “Federal marshals eventually waded in triggering a wild, fist-swinging melee…The gallery also erupted in fighting, and a number of onlookers were forcibly evicted…Some of the defense lawyers were also dragged out of the courtroom, but not Maxey. Maxey did his best to keep his client from joining the melee.” The trial was never resumed and the charges were eventually dropped. Judge Boldt reprimanded the other defense lawyers and singled out Maxey for praise: “Mr. Maxey did everything he reasonably could to prevent or restrain his clients and other defendants from misconduct.” Maxey later called it a “riotous disgraceful courtroom event.”

“During the 1970s and 1980s Maxey became the region’s most sought-after divorce lawyer, a branch of law that Maxey equated to war. Yet his law firm was committed to devoting 20 percent of its time to pro bono work…and he continued to take on civil-rights causes. Five Presidents, beginning in 1963 with John F. Kennedy, had appointed him to the Washington State Advisory Committee to the U. S. Civil Rights Commission.”

“He also took on high profile criminal defense cases including those of Kevin and Ruth Coe.” Maxey represented Kevin Coe late in the case during the sentencing phrase and later became Ruth Coe’s attorney when she tried to hire a hit man to kill the Prosecutor and the Judge. Although Ruth Coe was convicted Maxey was instrumental in getting her ‘a surprisingly light sentence of one year in jail with work release.”

“By the 1980s Maxey began to attain an elder statesman status in his profession. In 1988, retiring Washington Supreme Court Justice William Goodloe publicly recommended Maxey as his successor. Maxey’s detractors protested the nomination, accusing him of turning every issue into a racial issue. Governor Booth Gardner chose the only other black nominee, Charles Z Smith. Yet even as the public at large grew to admire Maxey’s legacy, one particular critic sounded increasingly bitter. That critic was Maxey himself. As his trademark mane of hair turned whiter, Maxey became increasingly discouraged about what America, and he himself, had accomplished. He told interviewers that his work has not made much difference to the people in power…He said “the whole damn country is a bunch of Archie Bunkers.”

“Then on July 17, 1997, just a day before he intended to announce his retirement from the courtroom, came the shocking news: Maxey had ended his own life at age 73 with a gunshot to the head in his Spokane home. The city mourned as it had for no other figure that decade. The Superior Court judges formed a black-robed honor guard at his memorial service. The Spokesman-Review published 12 stories about him over the next few days.”

It is not known why Carl Maxey took his own life. “One of his sons, Bevan Maxey, noticed a distinct change in his father’s mental state about a week before his death…His oldest friend, fellow-orphan Milton Burns, visited Maxey just a few days before his death. He said that Maxey seemed exhausted. Maxey told Burns that he had been in the lawyer business for 46 years and needed to get out. So maybe Carl Maxey was simply worn out. Maybe, after fighting his way up from nothing, after fighting his way to a national championship, after fighting in the courtroom for every underdog, after fighting to change an entire culture, he just couldn’t fight anymore.”

“Whether he knew it or not, Maxey had been a catalyst for important changes in the racial climate and in anti-discrimination laws in Washington. Today, when students of Gonzaga Law School enter the law library, they pass by a bronze bust of Carl Maxey. The inscription reads: “He made a difference.”