NASHVILLE – Adolpho A. Birch, the first black chief justice on the Tennessee Supreme Court and consistent challenger of death sentences in Tennessee, has died. He was 78.
Birch, chief justice in 1996 and 1997, died Thursday, Chief Justice Cornelia A. Clark confirmed Friday. WTVF-TV first reported his death.
The cause of death wasn’t immediately released. Birch was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2004 and took a temporary leave from the bench that year for chemotherapy and radiation treatment.
Birch began his judicial career in 1969 as a General Sessions Court judge in Davidson County. He went on to become a criminal court judge in Nashville and in 1987 a judge on the state Court of Criminal Appeals. He was appointed to the state Supreme Court in 1993 by then-Gov. Ned McWherter and served there until retiring in August 2006.
“As the only judge who ever served at every level of our legal system, Justice Birch had a keen understanding of the law, the judiciary and the people he served,” Clark said in a statement.