TACOMA, Wash. (AP) — U.S. District Judge Franklin Burgess of Tacoma has died at age 75 following a battle with cancer.
Chief U.S. District Judge Robert Lasnik tells The News Tribune newspaper that Burgess died Friday, surrounded by his family.
Burgess was a federal magistrate judge for more than a decade before President Bill Clinton appointed him U.S. district judge. He took the oath of office in 1994, becoming the second black federal judge in the Western District of Washington.
Burgess handled prominent cases including a challenge to Washington’s blanket primary system, an attempt to block whale-hunting by the Makah Tribe, and the trial of Briana Waters, who was convicted in a devastating 2001 ecoterror fire at the University of Washington’s Center for Urban Horticulture.
