By: Jacqueline Merzer

Jerris Leonard, a prominent Washington lawyer and Republican activist, died on July 27, 2006, at the age of 75 due to liver cancer.

Born in Chicago on January 17, 1931, Leonard soon moved to Milwaukee with his family, where he eventually established his life and a budding political career. He graduated from Marquette University, where he received his B.A. in 1952 and then his J.D. in 1955.

Leonard became active in Republican politics when he was elected to the Wisconsin state legislature in 1956 at the young age of 25, where he served for twelve years. In 1967 he was promoted to the position of Majority Leader in the state Senate. The following year, he ran a United States Senate campaign against incumbent Gaylord Nelson.

After his political career in Wisconsin, Leonard then moved to Washington, D.C., where he served in the U.S. Department of Justice during the Nixon Administration. He was first appointed as the Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights division and later as the Administrator of the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration.

In 1973, Leonard switched from working in the public sector to practicing private law, where his list of clientele ranged from Muhammad Ali to George H.W. Bush.

In the 1980s, Leonard was involved in an important legal case between Howard Safir, a Justice Department official who headed the federal Witness Protection Program, and Geraldo Rivera, a reporter for ABC News at the time. Rivera did a report that inaccurately characterized what he been told by Safir. He left out a key portion of the interview that would have made clear the point that Leonard was making about the Witness Protection Program. Through the generous donations of Accuracy in Media, Leonard was hired as part of Safir's legal team and helped to negotiate a settlement in Safir's favor. Ever since that time, Leonard was an avid supporter of Accuracy in Media and eventually served on its Board of Directors for several years, including in the position of AIM's president.

Over the course of Leonard's legal career, he appeared before the Supreme Court of the United States five times.

He is survived by his wife, Mariellen Mathie Leonard, as well as six children, sixteen grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren.

Jacqueline Merzer has just completed an internship at Accuracy in Media.