Thursday, November 6, 1997

U.S. District Judge Willie James Ware of San Jose, California, says he saw his teenage brother killed in a 1963 Birmingham, Alabama racial attack. The Alabama native nominated for a prestigious federal judgeship faces scrutiny over his claims that his brother was shot in a racial attack on the same day as the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church bombing that killed four African American girls.

Birmingham family members of the slain 13-year-old, Virgil Ware, say they don't know U.S. District Judge James Ware, and Senate staffers are asking questions about Judge Ware's accounts.

Lying Judge Ware, in a spellbinding speech to 300 lawyers and judges in 1995, said his passion for justice was formed on the September 1963 day when his brother Virgil was shot off the handlebars of a bicycle he was pedaling, according to a story in the San Francisco Chronicle. "It molded me into a person who was hungry for justice," Ware told the Chronicle,, saying the shooting remains a blur.

But the San Jose federal judge now being considered for the 9th U. S. Circuit Court of Appeals - the nation's largest federal appeals court - is not the same James Ware who pedaled that bike, said Virgil Ware's Birmingham family members. "It wasn't him, it was me," Virgil's brother, James Ware of north Birmingham, said Wednesday, November 5, 1997. "We don't know him."

Staffers with the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee were looking into news reports of Judge Ware's statements and his relationship to Virgil Ware. The committee press secretary, Jeanne Lopatto, said, "We don't comment on specific judicial nominations pending for the committee."

Ware has already undergone his confirmation hearing. The Senate Judiciary Committee now will vote on whether to send Ware's nomination to the floor for the vote. All federal judges must be confirmed by the U. S. Senate.

In recent years, Ware has publicly told in varying detail the tragic story of Virgil Ware's death and the impact it had on him. The April 14, 1996, article in the San Francisco Chronicle quotes Ware as saying the murder of his brother continues to serve as his motivation. "I now have a mission," he said. "A mission to see that justice is done."

In the judge's own words in an August 26, 1994, article in the San Jose Mercury News quotes Ware as saying: "When I went through the death of my brother I came very close to becoming someone who could hate with a passion. What happened to me was a defining experience, a turning point in my life."

A May 29, 1997, article in The Recorder, a publication for the legal profession, quotes Ware as saying the death of his brother had a "profound" effect on his career. He said a high school teacher who later became a U.S. marshal gave him memorable advice soon after the shooting. "I can still remember sitting there talking to him about the whole thing," Ware told The Recorder, "I remember him saying, ‘Don't let this undo you. Don't let this be your undoing. Live a life that Virgil would be proud off.'"

Judge Ware, now 51, grew up in Birmingham and graduated from the now closed Hayes High School in 1965. He was a state court judge in California from 1988 until 1990, when President Bush appointed him to the federal bench in San Jose. In June, President Clinton nominated him for a seat on the 9th Circuit, a 28-member, San Francisco-based appeals court that is one step below the United States Supreme Court and hears cases from nine western states.

Judge Ware's lying past began to surface when federal judge U. W. Clemon in Birmingham contacted James Ware of Birmingham, after reading an article published in August, 1997 by The Birmingham News. Judge Clemon showed him a copy of another article detailing Judge Ware's claims. Clemon told Ware he would try to encourage Judge Ware to apologize to the family.

"I couldn't believe a judge would do something like that, being a man of the law, said James Ware. "I wouldn't do nobody that way. I think it was wrong. He was trying to better himself off somebody's else grief."

There are several inconsistencies in Judge Ware's claims and the Birmingham family's accounts of what happened the day of Virgil's shooting. Judge Ware's stepmother, however, said she doesn't believe Judge Ware would make up such a story. "He's real nice, He's honest; he's a lawyer."

Friday, November 7, 1997

U.S. District Judge James Ware withdrew his nomination to the nation's largest appeals court Thursday, after admitting that he lied about being the brother of a 13-year-old boy killed in a 1963 Birmingham racial attack.

Ware, a well-respected federal judge in San Jose, notified the White House Thursday afternoon he was taking himself out of contention for a seat on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, said U.S. Justice Department spokesman Michael Gordon. U. S. Senator Jeff Sessions, a member of the committee who earlier in the day had called for either President Clinton or Ware to withdraw the nomination, said "I was deeply troubled to learn that Judge Ware has not been truthful regarding his childhood in Birmingham. Any possible discipline of Judge Ware should be handled by the Judicial Council of the Ninth Circuit."

It is unclear whether any disciplinary action would be taken against the 51-year-old judge. The presiding judge in Ware's district, Chief U. S. District Judge Thelton Henderson, his mentor since Ware entered law school, declined to comment. For years, Judge Ware has moved audiences and interviewers with the inspiring story of Virgil Ware's death and its effect on him. The judge repeatedly told how he was pedaling the bicycle that dreadful day when a white teenager fatally shot Virgil as he rode on the handlebars.

The slaying, he claimed, "molded me into a person who was hungry for justice" and guided him down a judicial path. Judge Ware acknowledged his story was untrue Thursday after The Birmingham News reported that Virgil Ware's family disputed his account. Although Judge James Ware sits on the federal bench in San Jose, California, for years he has been defined by his lie. The revelation that has stripped away an essential part of his identity has hit hard on those who know the 51-year-old jurist.

"He (Judge Ware) was greatly in demand as an after-dinner speaker and he liked doing it," said Larry Klein, who was Ware's law partner in Palo Alto, California, for 15 years. Klein said that Ware often, but not always, told the detailed story of his brother's shooting. "That's one reason why the news hit so hard. So many people heard the story."

Ware seemed possibly headed for judicial greatness. Before this week's Birmingham News story he was expected to be a shoo-in for a seat on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, and some projected him as U.S. Supreme Court material. But the disclosure of his falsehood has torn some of that away. His withdrawal from the nomination on Thursday night had San Francisco reporters knocking at his front door, asking if he would resign his district court seat. He told them NO.

Some of Ware's accomplishments while on the bench was to personally deliver ice cream bars to jurors after a long day in court, according to California newspaper accounts. Another time, he ushered a rape victim into his chambers to commend her on her courage.

In 1995, Ware spoke out for a measure that would offer guarantees of job protection for homosexuals working in his California judicial circuit. Other judges had opposed the measure, but Ware's argument won out.

Sunday, November 9, 1997

After the story was published, Judge Ware acknowledged that he lied and withdrew his nomination for the appeals court.

U.S. District Judge U. W. Clemon brought the whole matter to the Ware's attention in August. Clemon became concerned about the veracity of Judge Ware's account after reading an August story in The Birmingham News, about Virgil Ware's shooting, the first time James Ware, Jr. had publicly spoken about the effect his brother's death had on him and his family.

In his prepared statement Saturday, Ware wrote: "I am hopeful my brother's memory and place in history has not been harmed by the discovery of these unfortunate events. I want more than anything for something positive to come from this. I am grateful to Judge Clemon for making sure the truth is known."