‘I am Jane Roe’: An extraordinary life redeemed by unexpected grace

For more than four decades now there has been no more divisive issue where the public interest and personal right to privacy have collided in the United States than the legalization of abortion in 1973.

And that may be about the only thing the two sides in the ongoing incendiary debate can agree on.

“Norma McCorvey, who was 22, unwed, mired in addiction and poverty, and desperate for a way out of an unwanted pregnancy,” as the Washington Post noted in a story earlier today, when she became “Jane Roe, the pseudonymous plaintiff of the 1973 United States Supreme Court decision” in Jane Roe et al., Appellants v. Henry  Wade, district attorney of Dallas, which, in a 7-2 landmark decision more than 44 years ago now, establishing a constitutional right to an abortion, has died at an assisted-living facility in Katy, Tex. She was 69.

McCorvey, who had three children, never did have an abortion – a fact unknown to many. The United States Supreme Court didn’t rule in her favour in what had become a class-action lawsuit until her third child, which she placed for adoption, was 2½ years old.

McCorvey was received into the Catholic Church at St. Thomas Aquinas in Dallas in 1998. Hers was an often messy and complicated life. She was no plaster saint but rather another sinner, like all of us, with more than a little history and more than welcome in what might now well be called Pope Francis’ “field hospital.”

In May 1994, she published I Am Roe: My Life, Roe V. Wade, and Freedom of Choice. She was confronted at a book signing shortly after by Flip Benham a Protestant evangelical Free Methodist pastor, and after much discussion and debate in the months that followed, including some discussion of the Beach Boys, was baptized by Benham on Aug. 8, 1995 in a Dallas backyard swimming pool. Three years later, she converted to Catholicism.

Norma McCorvey’s was an extraordinary life redeemed by unexpected grace. After her conversion to Christianity in 1995, to hear her proclaim the simple but powerful declaration, “I am Jane Roe,” took on a whole new electrifying meaning for the pro-life or anti-abortion movement, with the “pro” or “anti” depending largely on whose constructing the heatedly-contested narrative at a given moment.

Requiescat in pace, Norma McCorvey.

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The twilight freedom of John W. Hinckley Jr.

John W. Hinckley Jr. is soon going home on “convalescent leave” to Williamsburg, Virginia to live with his 90-year-old mother.

The process for his release is set to begin as early as next Friday.

Hinckley is now 61-years-old and “suffering from arthritis, high blood pressure, and various other physical ailments like many men his age,” noted U.S. District Judge Paul L. Friedman, who sits on the bench of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia in Washington D.C., in his 103-page opinion memorialized as an accompanying federal court order July 27.

While Hinckley suffers from some routine age-related physical ailments, Friedman found he has long been in “full and sustained remission” and no longer suffers in a dangerously demonstrable way from the mental illness that led to him shooting then President Ronald Reagan in March 1981, and the following year saw him found not guilty by reason of insanity, making him the most famous patient in the United States, innocent of criminality but still so dangerous in the eyes of the judicial system he had to be detained for the last 35 years at St. Elizabeths Hospital in Washington, D.C. His release process, with reporting and myriad other conditions attached, could begin as early as Aug. 5, the judge determined.

In his ruling last Wednesday, Friedman found that Hinckley has received the maximum in-patient benefit possible at the federal psychiatric hospital and that he is ready to be returned to the community in his 60s to live out his remaining years.

The hospital opened in 1855 as the Government Hospital for the Insane and was the first federally-operated psychiatric hospital in the United States. During the Civil War, wounded soldiers treated there were reluctant to admit that they were in an insane asylum, and said they were at St. Elizabeths, the colonial name of the land where the hospital is located. Congress officially changed the hospital’s name to St. Elizabeths in 1916. Other famous – or infamous patients depending on one’s perspective perhaps – confined to St. Elizabeths include Ezra Pound, the expatriate American poet who made radio broadcasts from Rapallo, Italy between 1941 and 1945 on behalf of Benito Mussolini’s Fascist Italian regime during the Second World War. Pound was committed to St. Elizabeths in 1946 and remained there until 1958, when a treason charge against him was dismissed.

John W. Hinckley Jr. is a name that will likely always be a name that conjures up historical flashbulb photographic memories for the vast majority of Americans outside of St. Elizabeths Hospital who have not seen him in press photos since his trial ended in June 1982 and he was 27 years old, although he has been rarely photographed in public since then, including in Virginia on an unsupervised visit with family in April 2014.

But to most Americans, he is still the 25-year-old John Warnock Hinckley Jr.  photographed in the famous UPI picture riding in the backseat of a police car after his arraignment in U.S. District Court on March 31, 1981 – the day after he shot President Reagan.

Hinckley was armed with a .22-caliber pistol loaded with six exploding “Devastator” bullets when he opened fire on March 30, 1981.  All survived the attack, but several were seriously wounded, including the president.

Hinckley shot Reagan in the driveway outside the Hilton Hotel in Washington D.C. at 2:27 p.m. from just 10 feet away after the president had addressed the Building and Construction Workers Union of the AFL-CIO. U.S. Secret Service agent Tim McCarthy turned into the line of fire and took a bullet for the president, while another Secret Service Agent, Jerry Parr, roughly shoved Reagan into the presidential limousine, and then, as the Lincoln roared back toward the White House – per protocol – with driver Drew Unrue not knowing the president had been wounded, Parr, however, noticed Reagan was having difficulty breathing and bright frothy blood was coming from his mouth, ordered Unrue to turn the limousine around and race to George Washington Hospital, with its trauma centre, instead. Doctors said later Parr’s snap judgment call to detour to George Washington Hospital instead of continuing on to the White House, as planned, saved the president’s life.

Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Police Department officer Thomas Delahanty was wounded in the neck by the second of Hinckley’s bullets and suffered permanent nerve damage to his left arm.

But the most gravely injured was White House press secretary James Brady, who suffered a catastrophic brain injury, shot at point-blank range to the left-center of his forehead, the bullet passing through both hemispheres of his brain. ABC began airing footage at 2:42 p.m.  ABC, CBS and NBC all erroneously reported that Brady had died. Partially paralyzed, Brady did die many years later at the age of 73 on Aug. 4, 2014. The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner of Virginia ruled Brady’s death to be caused by homicide as a result of the 1981 shooting, but authorities opted not to prosecute Hinckley further as the result of the finding.

In his July 27 opinion, in response to the federal government’s move to continue Hinckley’s detention at St. Elizabeths, Friedman wrote, “In 1981, John W. Hinckley, Jr. was a profoundly troubled 25-year-old young man suffering from active and acute and major depression. His mental condition had gradually worsened over the preceding years – beginning as early as 1976 – ultimately resulting in a deep obsession with the actress Jodie Foster and the film Taxi Driver.

“Mr. Hinckley began to identify with the main character in the film, Travis Bickle, who unsuccessfully plots to assassinate a presidential candidate in order to win the affections of a young woman.”

Friedman goes onto say that Hinckley “has been under the care of St. Elizabeths Hospital for over three decades. Since 1983, when he last attempted suicide, he has displayed no signs of active mental illness, exhibited no violent behavior, shown no interest in weapons, and demonstrated no suicidal ideation. The government and the hospital both agree that Mr. Hinckley’s primary diagnoses of psychotic disorder not otherwise specified and major depression have been in full and sustained remission for well over 20 years, perhaps more than 27 years. In addition, since 2006, Mr. Hinckley has successfully completed over 80 unsupervised visits with his family in Williamsburg, Virginia.”

During those visits to Williamsburg, Hinckley stops in at Retro Daddio, a local music store, about once a month, where owner Jen Thurman told the Associated Press she is on a first name basis with him and a photo on the wall of a young Jodie Foster seems to go unnoticed. “I’m alone in the store frequently with him, and he’s never creeped me out,” Thurman told the AP.

Hinckley also joins his mother for Sunday services at the Williamsburg United Methodist Church when he’s visiting, and volunteers at the local Unitarian Church.

In arguing for Hinckley’s continued detention at St. Elizabeths, the United States government found itself grasping at some thin reeds, pointing out that when he was released on a work furlough in 2011 he twice told his supervisors he intended to go to the movies, when in fact he went instead to a Barnes & Noble bookstore. OK. Those were stupid lies, especially given Hinckley will be closely and rightly watched by the United States Secret Service whenever he is free for the rest of his life. Criminally responsible or not, that’s part of the price you can expect to pay for shooting a president. Last year, during a release, he deviated from his approved itinerary and visited a musician friend, instead of a photographer. He admitted to the lie. So, yes, 35 years have not cured Hinckley to the point he’s perfect and honest in every way. That would be a state of character few of the always sane could claim. But is he a danger? Is his continued detention in the public interest?

Case like Hinckley’s are extremely difficult. In 1981, he may not have committed a crime because he was insane at the time, but it is beyond doubt he committed a terrible deed by any objective standard, legally responsible for his actions or not. But what now? Is his continued detention justified simply because of his notoriety if nothing else? Of course not. John Hinckley Jr. was a mentally ill man. If indeed that mental illness is now in long, full and sustained remission, as Judge Friedman found, it is time to send the 35-year patient home, as unpopular with the public as that may prove to be.

That and only that is how the ends of justice are served.

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Alain Huberdeau, senior partner with Law North LLP in Thompson, appointed a provincial court judge

Alain Huberdeau, left, senior partner with Law North LLP in Thompson, has been appointed pursuant to an order-in-council as a provincial court judge for Thompson by Manitoba NDP Attorney General Andrew Swan.

At right is Mario LeClerc, grand knight of Knights of Columbus Thompson Council #5961, presenting Huberdeau with a plaque last Dec. 7 from local Knights at the council’s annual awards banquet at St. Lawrence Parish Hall, honoring him, and his wife, Andree Catellier, with the 2013 “Family of the Year Award” for having “served as an inspiration to our parish, community and council by supporting and strengthening Christian family life.”

As well, last Jan. 24, the Manitoba Bar Association (MBA), gave Huberdeau its annual Community Involvement Award at its MBA Recognition Awards luncheon in Winnipeg.

Huberdeau, the second provincial court judicial appointment for Thompson in 2½ months, replaces Judge Murray Thompson, who has relocated to Winnipeg. Thompson, appointed a judge of the provincial court on March 26, 2003, served as associate chief judge of the provincial court for seven years, from Aug. 2, 2006 until Aug. 1, 2013.

On July 16, Swan appointed Catherine Louise Hembroff, who had served as supervising senior Crown attorney in The Pas, to the provincial court bench here to replace Judge Brian Colli, who retired at the end of May to relocate to  Cape Forchu, Nova Scotia, near Yarmouth. Colli graduated from Dalhousie University law school in Halifax and was admitted to the bar in 1979 and came to Thompson as a Crown attorney himself that same year. He was appointed a judge of the provincial court by order-in-council on Sept. 21, 1994.

Huberdeau and Hembroff are tentatively set to be officially sworn-in here Oct. 31. They join Judge Doreen Redhead, who also sits on the provincial court judge bench in Thompson. She was appointed to the provincial court on April 4, 2007. Redhead, from Fox Lake Cree Nation, was born in Churchill and is the first aboriginal woman appointed to the provincial court bench in Manitoba. She graduated from the University of Manitoba law school in 1996.

Huberdeau, who was called to the Manitoba bar in 1997, received his law degree from the French language Université de Moncton Faculty of Law,  one of only two law schools in Canada offering a common law legal education taught entirely in French, with the other law school being the University of Ottawa Faculty of Law. Huberdeau grew up in St. Lazare is in western Manitoba, close to the Saskatchewan provincial boundary, at the forks of the Assiniboine River and Qu’Appelle River.

Law North LLP, and its predecessor law firms here named after various partners here over the last 50 years since its establishment in 1964, has a distinguished history in having seven of its lawyers go onto serve on the bench as judges, including just in recent years, Colli, Thompson, and Malcolm McDonald, senior partner in the law firm, then known as McDonald Huberdeau, who was appointed as provincial court judge for The Pas by Swan on Feb. 3, 2010.

Manitoba Court of Appeal Justice Holly Beard, also a former city councillor, however, was appointed to the bench from the law firm then known as  Bancroft, Whidden, Mayer and Buzza, known now as Mayer, Dearman and Pellizzaro.   Beard initially received a federal order-in-council appointment as justice of the Court of Queen’s Bench for Manitoba on Nov. 27, 1992, and was elevated to the Manitoba Court of  Appeal on Sept. 9, 2009.  A 1970 graduate of R.D. Parker Collegiate, Beard graduated from law school at the University of Manitoba in 1977 and was called to the bar in 1978.

Her father, Gordon Beard, whom the arena is named after here, was elected as Progressive Conservative  MLA for the constituency of Churchill, which then included Thompson, in 1963. He was re-elected in 1966 but resigned from the Progressive Conservative Party and stepped down as an MLA in 1968, complaining that the government was neglecting Northern affairs. He ran as an independent in the 1969 provincial election, defeating three other candidates, to regain the Churchill seat in the legislature. Gordon Beard suffered a heart attack and died in office at the age of 51 on Nov. 12, 1972.

More recently as well,  Judge Ken Champagne, who became chief judge of the provincial court on July 9, 2009, and was appointed to the provincial bench in 2005, began his legal career by articling in the Crown attorney’s office here in 1993. For many years he worked in Thompson, and was for a time supervising senior Crown attorney.

Huberdeau has been active in the community, including through his work with Our Foundation Thompson, formerly known as the Thompson Community Foundation, which was formed in 1995. With the establishment of the Moffat Family Fund in Winnipeg in December 2001 and the decision the following year to make its grant money more widely available elsewhere in Manitoba, Our Foundation Thompson benefited from that and its resources have grown substantially since then. The Moffat family made their fortune in the cable television business. The foundation describes itself as a “savings account” created by gifts from current and former citizens, businesses and community organizations. The money in the foundation’s endowment is never spent, but managed to produce an annual return that can be invested in local projects and organizations.

Our Foundation Thompson will be holding its annual fall gala Sept. 27  – tomorrow night  – at St. Joseph’s Ukrainian Catholic Hall on Juniper Drive.

Huberdeau has also been an active member of Knights of Columbus Thompson Council #5961, chartered with 59 members on May 6, 1967.  The Knights of Columbus is a Catholic fraternal benefit organization headquartered in New Haven, Connecticut. Its origins date back to an Oct. 2, 1881 meeting organized by Father Michael J. McGivney, the assistant pastor at St. Mary’s Church in New Haven. The Knights of Columbus, made up of Father McGivney, Matthew C. O’Connor, Cornelius T. Driscoll, James T. Mullen, John T. Kerrigan, Daniel Colwell and William M. Geary, were officially chartered by the general assembly of the State of Connecticut on March 29, 1882, as a fraternal benefit society.

Huberdeau, a long-time member of the Knights of Columbus,  who was the incumbent  financial secretary for the local council, which largely serves the two parishes of St. Lawrence Roman Catholic Church on Cree Road and St. Joseph’s Ukrainian Catholic Church on Juniper Drive, is  tendering his resignation from that post because of his judicial appointment. He has also served previously as grand knight for Knights of Columbus Thompson Council #5961 and district deputy for District 5,  made up of councils in The Pas, Flin Flon and Thompson.

Manitoba provincial court judges earn an annual base salary of $230,155.

Huberdeau was selected from a list of candidates recommended by an independent judicial nominating committee, chaired by Champagne. The committee also included three community representatives, representatives of the Law Society of Manitoba, the Manitoba branch of the Canadian Bar Association and a provincial court judge in addition to Champagne.

Unlike superior court justices, such as Beard, judges from the Manitoba Court of Appeal and Court of Queen’s Bench, who are federally appointed, provincial court judges are provincially appointed by Swan upon the recommendation of the judicial nominating committee.

It was the responsibility of the judicial nominating committee to recommend to Swan a list of not fewer than three and not more than six names of individuals for the position to fill the vacancy created by Thompson’s departure.

Applicants must have practiced for not less than five years as a barrister and solicitor in Manitoba, be a member in good standing of The Law Society of Manitoba, and be entitled to practice as a barrister and solicitor in this province, or have other equivalent experience.

They hold office “during good behaviour” and must reside in the province.

Applicants must be willing to reside in Thompson, and be capable of and willing to travel by automobile and small aircraft to circuit courts throughout the province.

Judicial responsibilities include a caseload of criminal cases and child protection matters.

The Provincial Court Act establishes the provincial court of Manitoba. It is a court of record and has primarily a criminal jurisdiction, as well as limited concurrent jurisdiction with the Court of Queen’s Bench in family law matters that originate outside of Winnipeg. More than 95 per cent of all criminal cases in Manitoba commence in the provincial court.

After an individual is charged, the provincial court hears applications for judicial interim release, more commonly known as bail hearings, presides over first appearances for the accused, and holds preliminary hearings to determine whether there is sufficient evidence to order an accused to stand trial. The provincial court also hears all youth court cases in Manitoba.

In addition to cases under the Criminal Code and the Youth Criminal Justice Act, the provincial court hears cases under a variety of other federal statutes, such as: the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, and hears all provincial statute cases, such as those under The Highway Traffic Act and The Liquor Control Act. The court also presides over inquests under The Fatality Inquiries Act, and reviews alleged police misconduct under The Law Enforcement Review Act.

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