San Diego Criminal Justice Memorial
Honorees
A memorial directory honoring deceased judges, prosecutors, and defense attorneys who advanced criminal justice in San Diego County.
Hon. Edward T. Butler
1918-2003
Ed Butler was born in Michigan in 1918. He worked his way through college, doing odd jobs and serving in the Merchant Marine. In 1941, he graduated from George Washington University. He joined the Marines as a lieutenant, and served in the Pacific during World War II. He received the Bronze Star for his actions during combat at Guadalcanal. The day the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima he applied to (and was accepted by) Harvard Law School.
In 1948, he received his law degree from Harvard, and was admitted to the California Bar in 1949. His practice of law was interrupted for two more years of service as a marine officer during the Korean War. He came to San Diego in 1959 to work as general counsel and manager of Electro Instruments, an electric volt meter company.
Ed served as City Attorney of San Diego from 1964 through 1969 before running an unsuccessful campaign for mayor of San Diego in 1971. From 1969 through 1975, he was a partner in the firm of Schall, Butler, Boudreau and Gore. Long an active Democrat, he was rewarded in 1975 with a Superior Court judgeship after co-chairing Edmund G. “Jerry” Brown, Jr.’s successful 1974 campaign for governor of California. The San Diego Trial Lawyers Association named him Judge of the Year in 1980 “for his strong and incisive decision-making ability, coupled with humor and compassion.” (Dicta July 1980).
“Butler is widely known for his eloquence, razor sharp wit and occasional equally sharp tongue.” In a profile in 1984, Butler stated that “The law is the last refuge of the free man and woman.” (Dicta Jan. 1984). Judge Butler carried on the tradition started by Judge Dean Sherry of wearing a green robe every St. Patrick’s Day – a tradition continued to this day by Judge Thomas J. Whelan, first in Superior Court and then in the District Court. (100 Years of Justice, Chronicle of the San Diego County Bar Assn, at 99).
Governor Brown elevated Butler to the Fourth District Court of Appeal, Division One in 1982. He served there with distinction, writing scholarly, and often pithy, civil and criminal opinions until he reached the age of 70 in February 1988. Butler, who was a self-described “Edmund Burke liberal” — conservative on property issues and liberal on individual rights — remained active in the legal community after his retirement. He worked as legal counsel with a local law firm as well as with Judicial Arbitration and Mediation Services, Inc. as a “rent-ajudge.” In 2000, the San Diego City Council proclaimed February 27 “Ed Butler day.”
Butler died in 2003 at the age of 85. Friends and family remember him as an Irish jurist, humorist, and poet who was open-minded, compassionate, and elevated appellate opinion writing to an art form, often quoting from Charles Dickens and William Shakespeare. His reputation for fairness, especially in criminal matters, earned him wide respect in the legal community. He left this world on December 23, 2003.