The
district attorney of
Dallas County,
Texas,
USA, probably most famous as the
defendant in the
landmark 1973 U.S.
Supreme Court Abortion decision,
Roe v. Wade which declared a woman has the right to obtain an
abortion at any time during the first
trimester of pregnancy, and that the Texas
statute prohibiting such abortions (and by inference, every other similar
state law) was
unconstitutional and thus
void.
Earlier, he gained notoriety by prosecuting Jack Ruby for the murder of Lee Harvey Oswald, the man alleged to be the murderer of John F. Kennedy, a claim some dispute as a frame-up and believe Oswald was a patsy and was a victim of a conspiracy. While Ruby was sentenced to death as a result of the jury verdict in the trial, the Texas Supreme Court would later overturn Ruby's conviction.