Judge Donald L. Graham

 

By John E. Thornton, Jr.:

Shrewd, wise, pensive. Courteous, disciplined, respectful. Cultured, traveled, adventurous. These are the first words that come to mind when reflecting upon the last fifteen years I have known Judge Graham.

I interned for Judge Graham during the summer after my 1L year, and I clerked for him from 2015 to 2017. For those who have served as judicial law clerks, clerking is one of the best legal jobs one can have. Besides the rigorous education clerking provides, its true value comes from the unwritten nuggets of wisdom received from the judge for whom one clerks. For two years, I learned from him—how to: interpret the law; analyze the facts; distinguish effective advocacy from the ineffective; properly prepare for every challenge, no matter how small; and navigate a legal career, an esteemed profession—not industry, while also serving the community in which we practice.

Judge Graham personifies professionalism. He never demands more from litigants or their counsel than what he demands from himself or his staff. Preparedness, thoughtfulness, accountability, excellence, integrity and, of paramount importance, respect for the court. As a jurist, Judge Graham is a perpetual student of the law. Because of that, he approaches every matter with astute clarity, which ensures every case and ruling is handled efficiently and judiciously.

Having served over thirty years on the bench—thirty-four to be exact, Judge Graham has presided over and ruled upon many consequential cases, both locally and nationally. These cases include: Haitian Refugee Ctr., Inc. v. Baker, 1991 WL 330942 (S.D. Fla. Nov. 19, 1991), where he granted the emergency application for a temporary restraining order to halt the United States from forcing the repatriation of Haitians to Haiti; Meek v. Metropolitan Dade Cnty, Fla., 805 F. Supp. 967 (S.D. Fla. 1992), where, in a forty-one page opinion, he ruled that Miami-Dade County’s then-present at-large system of voting violated the mandate of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act—affirmed on the merits by the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals; and Wojcieszak v. U.S., 196 F. Supp. 3d 1319 (S.D. Fla. 2016), where he vacated and set aside the petitioner’s original sentence and concluded that his three prior Florida burglary convictions, because of the elements constituting burglary in Florida, did not qualify the petitioner as an armed career criminal under the Armed Career Criminal Act’s (“ACCA”) enumerated or residual clauses. At a time when ACCA sentencing litigation was exceptionally high, and flooding the courts nationally in light of Descamps v. United States,  Johnson v. United States, and Welch v. United States, Judge Graham was the first Article III judge in the Southern District of Florida to issue an opinion granting a first-filed motion to vacate pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2255 based upon Florida’s burglary statute once the legal dust settled.

Before the judiciary, Judge Graham served in the Judge Advocate General’s Corps, United States Army, in West Germany and at the Homestead Air Force Base and then as an Assistant United States Attorney in Miami where he dutifully served that Office as both the Chief of the Narcotics Unit and Special Prosecutions Unit. After that, he went into private practice with Martin Raskin, Esq., where they engaged in criminal and civil trial practice in state and federal courts throughout the United States, including right here in South Florida when Miami’s “Cocaine Cowboys” were at their peak.

As a dedicated public servant, Judge Graham has served as a lecturer in the United States Department of Justice Trial Advocacy Program on behalf of the Department of Justice and Department of Commerce in: Cebu and Manila, Philippines; Shenyang, Hangzhou, Xiamen, and Shanghai, People’s Republic of China; Kathmandu, Nepal; Kampala and Jinja, Uganda; Gaborone, Botswana; Monrovia, Liberia; and Nairobi, Kenya. He has also served as a member of the United States Advisory Board on the Investigative Capacity of the Department of Defense, and as a faculty member for the Trial Advocacy Workshop at Harvard Law School in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

The breadth and depth of Judge Graham’s community activities and professional involvements include having served as a president, board member, or member of the following: Federal Bar Association, South Florida Chapter; National Bar Association; Wilkie D. Ferguson, Jr. Bar Association; District Judges Association – Eleventh Circuit; Council of Florida Bar Presidents; the Just The Beginning Foundation; and the 5000 Roles Models of Excellent Project.

Judge Graham has served as a professional and personal mentor to me. To wit, he graciously agreed to serve as the officiant when I married my lovely wife, Jennifer. That said, I am not the exception. He has provided prescient advice to innumerable law clerks, interns, attorneys, and staff. Judge Graham takes a keen interest in the lives of everyone with whom he encounters, and he guides those who request his stewardship.

Ever the traveler, Judge Graham has traveled to numerous countries and has visited every continent except Australia and maybe Antarctica. Maybe. From traversing rivers in Southeast Asia to exploring jungles in Africa, his knowledge and understanding of many different cultures is only rivaled by his knowledge and understanding of the law. Indeed, he has on multiple occasions spent time with the Maasai people of Kenya, for whom he has an affection and appreciation, who immediately took to him due to his warmth and kindness.

I would be remiss to omit Judge Graham’s affinity for all things Ohio State Buckeyes, especially football. Let’s just say I am glad I was not clerking for him when the Buckeyes played my Florida Gators in the 2007 BCS National Championship Game (the Gators won). But the Buckeyes have won two national championships since then and the Gators only one, the fact of which he will politely remind me when we discuss college football.

Judge Graham is fair, even keeled, and has a presence that fills any room but never seeks the limelight. Indeed, and unknown to many, Judge Graham periodically presides over matters in the Fort Pierce Division, despite sitting in Miami, and he has dutifully done so for years. Unknown to more, he was only the second Black American nominated and confirmed to the federal bench in the Southern District of Florida at a time when there were no Black judges in this District. If Judge Graham ever decides to hang up his robe, unlikely considering his vitality and vigor—he is in the gym four to five times a week, seriously—this community will owe him an unpayable debt of gratitude for his over 40 years of public service.

And with that, I will leave you with a quote I think captures the spiritual essence Judge Graham imprints upon anyone who knows him:

“Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome while trying to succeed.”

-Booker T. Washington

FBA Post Below:

 Judge Donald Graham was nominated to the district bench in 1991 by President George H.W. Bush; he continues to serve as a senior judge. After graduating from law school at The Ohio State University, Judge Graham served in the United States Army Judge Advocate General’s Corps from 1974 to 1979 and in the Army Reserve JAG Corps from 1983-1991. He worked as an Assistant United States Attorney and later as a private criminal defense attorney until he was nominated to serve the Court. In 2004, he was the first judge in the Southern District of Florida to hold a provision of the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines unconstitutional; his decision tracked Blakely v. Washington, decided that same year, and anticipated United States v. Booker the following year, which made the guidelines advisory nationwide.