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CRAIG BASSEDuring 10 years on the Florida Supreme Court, he built a reputation as a judicial activist.
Legislators called him "a wild man." Colleagues on the Florida Supreme Court labeled him a dissenter. To others, Richard W. Ervin was an unabashed liberal.
He proved to be an activist during a decade on the court, surprising some of his former associates.
The dean of Florida's elected officials at the time, Justice Ervin was forced to retire in 1975 after four decades because of age. He died Tuesday (Aug. 24, 2004) in Tallahassee after a long illness, said Supreme Court spokesman Craig Waters. He was 99.
Gov. Jeb Bush ordered flags flown at half staff until Sunday.
As attorney general from 1949 to 1964, Mr. Ervin took a leading role in responding to U.S. Supreme Court school desegregation decisions and protecting Florida's offshore oil interests.
Later, he expressed regret for some of his pro-segregation positions, including a resolution denying the federal government's authority in issues such as segregation. The Legislature adopted it over the strong opposition of Gov. LeRoy Collins.
Early in his first term as attorney general, he launched a drive to rid the state of organized bookmaking and illegal gambling.
He also published the first original revision of the Florida Statutes and sought to have the Legislature give his office consumer-protection powers. The effort failed, and in a 1974 interview he told why: Back in the 1950s, he said, "The Legislature said I was a wild man."
He was appointed to the court by Gov. Farris Bryant in 1964 to succeed Justice Glenn Terrell who died at 86.
His contribution, the former chief justice said, was to try to reduce court procedures "so the odds won't be so great against the average citizen."
"The law should try within reason to help the poor and the disadvantaged. You don't have to be a knee-jerk liberal to know that."
Justice Ervin said he considered his years on the high court, where he acquired the title of "dissenter," to have been the pinnacle of his government career.
One memorable dissent dealt with the 1972 law restoring Florida's death penalty.
"As usual under "discretion,' it is left to sentencing judges to determine in particular cases who will get death," he said in protest. "We know intuitively who will: the poor, the underprivileged, the public defender clients, the blacks and other minority people, the mentally incompetent or those holding unpopular or unorthodox ideologies. The affluent usually escape the death penalty ... "
He wrote that in dissent to the death sentence imposed on John Spenkelink, who became the first to die under Florida's new law, for killing a fellow drifter in a Tallahassee motel room.
A native Floridian, Richard William Ervin was born in Carrabelle, a coastal town in the rural panhandle county of Franklin. His mother was the former Carrie Phillips, a member of the pioneer Phillips family of Fellowship, Marion County.
His father was Richard W. Ervin Sr., a schoolteacher and principal who moved frequently as jobs changed. Consequently, young Richard attended public schools in Citrus, DeSoto, Leon, Orange and Marion counties.
After graduating from the University of Florida College of Law in 1928, he began practicing in Pinellas County, where he registered as a Democrat. He moved to Lee County in 1929 and later to Putnam County. He practiced there until 1935, when he decided to seek a career in public service.
During World War II, he served in the Florida National Guard.
Inormation from Times files and the Associated Press was used in this obituary. Times staff writer Martin Dyckman contributed to this report.