How did Jeff Blackburn die? A well-known attorney cause of death explained

Criminal defense attorney Jeff Blackburn, a towering figure in the courtroom and a cornerstone of the West Texas legal community, has died. Let’s see How did Jeff Blackburn die and Jeff Blackburn Cause of death in detail.

How did Jeff Blackburn die?

Jeff Blackburn, a criminal defense lawyer from Amarillo who was renowned in the legal community of West Texas, has passed away on February 7, 2023. He was 65.

His Family members shared the news on Social Media.

One of his sons wrote,

“He left with a clear mind, a strong spirit, and fully at peace with himself and the world.” Blackburn “was totally prepared for his passing.”

He was a Texas native who had grown up in Amarillo and had residences in both Texas and New Mexico at the time of his passing. Jeff’s family, as well as other close friends and coworkers, provided him with a lot of support in his final months.

For family and close friends, there will be a modest private service at El Prado to commemorate Jeff’s passing. On March 4, 2023 at 1:00 PM at the Amarillo Botanical Gardens, one of his favorite locations, there will be a public celebration of his life in Amarillo. The creation of a new civil rights group in southern Colorado and northern New Mexico was Jeff’s most recent project. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions in his honor may be directed to the Rio Grande Regional Justice Project, c/o Kathryn Hardy, Attorney at Law, P.O. Box 3602, Taos, NM 87571, [email protected].

Jeff Blackburn Cause of death

We’re sorry to have to inform you that Jeff Blackburn has passed away.

Jeff Blackburn was regarded as having a friendly personality. Many people must be curious to know the Jeff Blackburn cause of death in light of the recent news.

Blackburn’s family claims that he died after a battle with cancer.

Jeff Blackburn Cause of death has left the community inconsolable.

Who was Jeff Blackburn?

Jeff Blackburn was a lawyer. In 1983, he started working as a lawyer in Amarillo after earning his law degree from the University of Houston. Throughout Jeff’s lengthy legal career, he defended the weak and marginalized in civil rights and criminal cases all across Texas, frequently for no charge. He briefed and argued Texas v. McCullough before the U.S. Supreme Court in 1985, after graduating from law school by two years. He received board certification as a criminal law specialist in 1988, and he had that designation up until his passing.

He handled numerous high-profile cases, such as whistleblower and death sentence cases, around the state in the 1980s and 1990s. In this time period, the Texas Lawyer newspaper once referred to him as the “trouble-makingest lawyer in West Texas.” That was a huge compliment to Jeff. He took up the cases of 38 people who had been detained in Tulia, Texas, for narcotics offences in 2001, almost all of them were African-American. His clients were exonerated in what is still the largest mass pardon in American history after years of arduous pro bono legal effort during which he built and oversaw a national coalition of attorneys. Due in large part to Jeff’s conception and co-authorship, this incident resulted in the enactment of substantial criminal justice reform legislation, which included defunding drug task teams.

Texas Innocence Project

He established the Texas Innocence Project in 2006. Up until 2015, he was its Chief Counsel. The Texas Tech Law School-based initiative cleared dozens of persons who had been unfairly imprisoned and received widespread praise. Tim Cole, a young guy who had been wrongfully convicted and died in jail, was cleared of all charges by him in late 2009. The Tim Cole Compensation Act and the establishment of the Tim Cole Advisory Panel on Wrongful Convictions were two measures brought about by this posthumous exoneration, the first of its type in Texas. In recognition of Mr. Cole’s legacy and the work carried out by Jeff and the Texas Innocence Project, a memorial to him has been erected in Lubbock, Texas. Along with Kevin Glasheen, he founded the Tim Cole Scholarship at Texas Tech to support students who want to practice law for the sake of defending the defenseless. In Texas, Jeff was a leader in other measures that limit the use of dubious science and fraudulent eyewitness identification by prosecutors. He had a strong belief in the necessity to raise the standard of public defense. He spent years trying to establish a statewide public defender because he thought it was the source of most injustice in Texas’ criminal justice system.

He presided over the Committee on Legal Services to the Poor in Criminal Matters of the Texas State Bar from 2010 to 2013. The “Performance Guidelines for Non-Capital Criminal Defense Representation,” which are still widely used as a benchmark for raising the calibre of criminal defense in Texas, were co-authored by him, and he helped win their passage into law. He played a key role in obtaining the national Sixth Amendment Center to research the indigent defense system in Amarillo after issuing an honorable report on the state of the criminal justice system there. In his hometown, a new public defender and managed assigned counsel system were established as a result of his endeavor.

Awards

Throughout his professional life, Jeff received numerous state and national honors, including Texas Criminal Defense Lawyer of the Year, the Frank Spurlock Award, the Henry B. Gonzalez Award, the Michael Moore Award, the Maury Maverick Award, the William Kunstler Award, and, most recently, the Warren Burnett Award in 2022. The Texas State Bar, the Texas Civil Rights Project, the ACLU, the NAACP, LULAC, and other civil rights organizations have all given him awards over the years for his work. Up until his passing, he had received more than fifteen years of Texas Monthly’s “Super Lawyer” rating.

Throughout his career, he appeared in numerous television program and motion pictures, including the 2009 PBS feature film “Tulia” and, most recently, the 2021 documentary “Kid Candidate.”

However, Jeff’s life was much more than just about law and reforming the criminal justice system. He was passionate about organic farming, the mountains and deserts of northern New Mexico, as well as life, his family, travel, good discussion, excellent music, and all of these things. He studied extensively in philosophy, economics, and history since he was insatiably curious and open-minded. He admired poetry, literature, and art. Throughout his life, he was a great friend, mentor, and father. He was also a great-grandfather.

Tributes to Jeff Blackburn

Many people expressed their profound sympathies to his family and expressed how much they loved him.

Brennan Leggatt wrote,

“I just learned that one of my great friends, political foe, political ally, mentor, great legal mind, warrior, leader and patriot has passed away. Jeff Blackburn you crazy amazing man. This sucks brother. We have too many fights still left to fight. I have admired only a few people that lit the fire of law and politics in my life and you were one of them. This city and its people have lost a Lion. A Lion that roared for the people no matter who are because he loved you for who you are. This is a sad sad sad day. If you know Sam, Scotney and the family give them a shout and love them. Because that’s what Jeff would do.”

Eva Ruth Moravec wrote,

“I’ll miss you, Jeff Blackburn. You made the world — and Texas in particular — a better place. #rip ”

One of the worst things anyone can go through in life is losing a loved one. Any journey must have a destination at the end. The person’s time on earth has regrettably come to an end now that they have died.

We wish him eternal peace and send our thoughts and prayers to his loved ones, family, friends. May he rest in peace.

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