Watergate Lawyer Garrison Dies at 65
ROANOKE, Va. — Samuel Alexander Garrison III, who defended President Richard Nixon in impeachment hearings in 1974 and later became a gay activist, has died. He was 65. Garrison died Sunday after a long battle with leukemia, said Mark Harris, his partner of 17 years.
Garrison was the deputy minority counsel for the House Judiciary Committee and later also was the chief Republican counsel.
“Sam realized what a high honor it was,” Harris said. “He really enjoyed doing that. He said it was fun hearing his name on TV and seeing his name in magazines.”
Following Watergate, Garrison returned to Roanoke to practice law. He was disbarred and served four months in prison for embezzling $46,000 from a bankruptcy account in 1980. The Virginia Supreme Court reinstated his law license in 1993.
In recent years he was active in the gay, lesbian and transgender movement. Representing 10 men arrested for soliciting oral sex in two city parks in 1998, Garrison waged an unsuccessful effort to have Virginia’s sodomy statute declared unconstitutional.
“Sam’s goal was to convince society that being gay shouldn’t be a question of right or wrong, but a part of who they are,” Harris said. “He asked, ‘Why should such a small part be such a big deal?’”
Garrison earned bachelor’s and law degrees from the University of Virginia and was the chief assistant commonwealth’s attorney in Roanoke from 1966-69. He was elected as the city’s top prosecutor in 1970.
Besides Harris, survivors include a son, David Garrison of Exton, Pa., and three grandchildren. His marriage to Mary Richardson ended in divorce, and a daughter, Lisa Garrison, died in 1985.
Source: washingtonpost.com