Court of Appeals Judge Theodore T. Jones, former Brooklyn justice, passes at age 68
Judge Theodore T. Jones of the New York State Court of Appeals, the state’s top court, died of an apparent heart attack Monday night at home in Rockland County, according to court officials. He became a state Supreme Court Justice in Brooklyn in 1990 and was joined the Court of Appeals in 2007 after being nominated by Gov. Eliot Spitzer.
Jones was co-chairman of the court’s task force on wrongful convictions, which recommended videotaping police interrogations, steps to prevent suggestive police lineups for witnesses and expanding defense access to DNA evidence. He was the current court’s only African-American and chaired its diversity committee.
“Judge Jones was a ground-breaking leader in state Supreme Court and later the state Court of Appeals, where he served as only the fourth African-American judge in the court’s 167-year history” said New York State Bar Association President Seymour W. James, Jr. In 2011, the New York State Bar Association presented Judge Jones with a Lifetime Achievement Award.