26 October 2004

Qualifications to be Chief Justice

You must have empathy for those accused:
In one instance, young Fred's sympathy for one inmate got carried away, even in the eyes of the would-be beneficiary. It happened when he was four years old. Fred, recalling the incident years later, said, "There was a prisoner to whom I took a liking. I decided he didn't belong in jail. He hadn't told me he wanted out, but I made up my mind I'd help him escape. I got hold of my father's hatchet, and one day when no one was looking, I walked up to his cell and slipped it through the bars to him." The prisoner, though, was an unwilling participant in the plot. Calling out to Fred's father after the youngster had departed, he said, "Jim, here is a little present your boy just gave me. I figured you would like to have it back".
Chief Justice Fred M. Vinson of Kentucky, p. 6

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