Interview with William F. McMurry, May 18, 2015

Partial Transcript: This is Betty Bayé, and I'm interviewing William F. McMurry, a lawyer here in Louisville, Kentucky. Today's date is May the 18th, 2015, and we're in Louisville, Kentucky.

Segment Synopsis: McMurry, an inductee into the Kentucky Human Rights Hall of Fame, discusses his family, particularly explaining how his father, a lawyer in McMurry's hometown of Paducah, Kentucky, inspired him to work for the benefit of underdogs in society. He talks about being inspired both by his father's work and by his reaction to the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.

Keywords: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.; Fathers; Human rights; Lawyers; Mothers; Underdogs; Underprivileged

Subjects: Family life.; King, Martin Luther, Jr., 1929-1968.; Paducah (Ky.); Poverty.

Partial Transcript: Did you know early on that law was where you wanted to be because you looked up to your dad, or was there--how did that--because you, you, you did your undergraduate work--what was undergraduate degree in at UK?

Segment Synopsis: McMurry discusses his education at the University of Kentucky, telling particularly of his first skydiving experience in his initiation into the Sigma Nu fraternity. Although this experience was terrifying, he explains, he went on to become an expert skydiver, even competing in national competitions.

Keywords: Cousins; Fear; Fraternities; Law school; Professional sports

Subjects: Lawyers.; Practice of law.; Sigma Nu; Skydiving; University of Kentucky

Partial Transcript: Well your cousin, who you mentioned, Fletcher?

Segment Synopsis: McMurry describes his return to his hometown of Paducah, Kentucky in 1979 after completing law school. After working for three months with his father, he explains, he took the position of Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney working under Mark Bryant as a trial attorney.

Keywords: Brandon Price; Kentucky Commonwealth's Attorney; Mark Bryant; Trial attorneys

Subjects: Lawyers.; Paducah (Ky.); Practice of law.

Partial Transcript: So then you're Assistant Commonwealth Attorney in Paducah. And then, you break away from ken--Paducah, and you come to Louisville, right?

Segment Synopsis: McMurry explains that after nine months as Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney and a few more months with his father in 1980, he moved to Florida, where aside from practicing skydiving he took the bar examination. Soon afterward, he explains, because he would not be able to find employment as a lawyer for several months in Florida, he moved to Louisville, Kentucky where he took a position as a lawyer in the Commonwealth's Attorney's office, thanks to the help of several lawyers such as William Knopf, Dee Pregliasco, his father, and Commonwealth Attorney David Armstrong.

Keywords: David Armstrong; Delores Hill Pregliasco; USPA National Skydiving Championships; William Knopf

Subjects: Lawyers.; Practice of law.; Skydiving

Partial Transcript: You moved then from the Commonwealth's Attorney into your own practice, right?

Segment Synopsis: McMurry discusses his move to the law firm of Boehl, Stopher, Graves and Deindoerfer in 1982, where he worked as a partner in civil cases for two years. He explains that he won his first case against prosecuting attorney Donald Cox, but lost his second case to William Siler.

Keywords: Boehl, Stopher, Graves and Deindoerfer Law Firm; Charles Mengel Allen; Donald L. Cox; Edward Stopher; PepsiCo; Sunbeam Corporation; William K. Siler

Subjects: Civil law.; Lawsuits.; Lawyers.; Practice of law.

Partial Transcript: Uh, in any event, after three years, I really didn't--the defense of, of, of, of companies didn't suit me well. Uh, you know, it's hard to really pin down a corporation as to what it exi--what it really is, and I moved on from there, and, uh, wound up going to Florida to, to--

Segment Synopsis: McMurry explains that in 1985 he moved to Florida with his wife and children, practiced law as a plaintiff for two years, and then moved back to Louisville, Kentucky with his family. He practiced law for seven years with Doug Morris and Ann Oldfather, he says, before starting his own law firm in 1994. He describes two of the earliest cases he undertook on behalf of those whose basic rights had been violated: two cases of children being imprisoned or jailed with adults.

Keywords: Ann Oldfather; Arthur Grafton; Douglas Morris; Edward Huggins Johnstone; Mikell Grafton; Morris Dees; Muhammad Ali; Personal injury law; Plaintiffs

Subjects: Children; Human rights.; Lawyers.; Practice of law.

Partial Transcript: But, uh, back to Morris Dees. So, uh, I guess, uh, I had read Morris's book, uh, "Season for Justice." Uh, and I, I was so impressed with Morris Dees.

Segment Synopsis: McMurry discusses his involvement in a case working with Morris Dees and the Southern Poverty Law Center against the white supremacist group Imperial Klans of America, some of whose members had severely beaten Hispanic teenager Jordan Gruver at a 2006 county fair. The case was not an easy one to win, explains McMurry, nor was it free of danger to him personally. He discusses Thurgood Marshall as an inspiration to lawyers fighting for justice for minorities.

[[Recording is interrupted at 1:07:43.]]

Keywords: Devil in the Grove (book); Imperial Klans of America; Jordan Gruver; Ku Klux Klan; Mary Franklin; Richard Cohen; Ron Edwards; Thurgood Marshall

Subjects: Dees, Morris; Hate crimes.; Human rights.; Imperial Klans of America; Racism.; Southern Poverty Law Center; White supremacy movements.

Partial Transcript: Let's--I want to--we want to set a time frame for the, for the, for the Klansmen case. What, what years are we talking about?

Segment Synopsis: McMurry further discusses the case against the Imperial Klans of America over the beating of a young man, a case which lasted from 2006 to 2008. McMurry explains that even with the help of Kale Todd Kelly, a former white supremacist who had been enlisted to assassinate Morris Dees of the Southern Poverty Law Center, the victory in this case was hard-fought because of an indecisive jury.

Keywords: Assassination attempts; Imperial Klans of America; Jordan Gruver; Kale Todd Kelly; Ku Klux Klan; Morris Dees; Ron Edwards

Subjects: Dees, Morris; Hate crimes.; Human rights.; Imperial Klans of America; Racism.; Southern Poverty Law Center; White supremacy movements.

Partial Transcript: Now, you, uh, moved on from that case, and there were others that you've done, but I'd like to talk about one that struck a lot of people around the world, and that is your work on the Catholic priest abuse cases.

Segment Synopsis: McMurry explains how it came about that in 2002 he took on 243 cases of child sexual abuse against the Archdiocese of Louisville, beginning with Mike Turner, who was abused as a child by Rev. Louis Miller in Louisville, Kentucky.

Keywords: Archdiocese of Louisville; David Black; Holy Spirit Community; Lexington Courier-Journal; Louis Miller; Mike Turner

Subjects: Catholic Church.; Child sexual abuse.; Civil law.; Lawsuits.

Partial Transcript: Would you, would you talk a little bit about those 243 people? What, what, what were their professions, their careers?

Segment Synopsis: McMurry describes the professions of the 243 people whom he represented in lawsuits against the Archdiocese of Louisville. He also discusses the psychological damage inflicted by their experiences of sexual abuse in childhood.

Keywords: Archdiocese of Louisville; Catholic Church.; Children; Civil law; Lawsuits

Subjects: Child sexual abuse.; Marriages.; Psychic trauma.

Partial Transcript: Um, I felt like the responsibility needed to be placed on the Pope, on the Holy See, the Vatican. And, uh, after stewing on it for two years, I took the extraordinarily risky, uh, approach of suing the Vatican, a foreign nation, which is forbidden under federal law unless you can prove certain exceptions.

Segment Synopsis: McMurry explains that in 2004, two years after the lawsuits against the Archdiocese of Louisville, he represented another victim of child sexual abuse in a lawsuit against the Vatican itself.

Keywords: O'Bryan v. Holy See; The Vatican

Subjects: Civil law.; Lawsuits.; Popes.

Partial Transcript: You have been very kind with your time, but I, I did want to say, uh--to ask you whether there was another case--because you've talked about people who were life-changing for you, cases that were life-changing. Is there some case, like Judge Johnstone might have said, some case that seems like a little case that really impacted you, you know, in terms of who, the man who you are.

Segment Synopsis: McMurry discusses a 2004 lawsuit in which he represented forty-four women who had been sexually abused as children in the St. Thomas St. Vincent Orphanage in Anchorage, Kentucky by nuns in the Sister of Charity of Nazareth. One of the children was Kim Michele Richardson who wrote the book "The Unbreakable Child" describing her experiences there.

Keywords: Herman J. Lammers; Kim Michele Richardson; Sisters of Charity of Nazareth; St. Thomas St. Vincent Orphanage; The Unbreakable Child (book)

Subjects: Catholic Church.; Child sexual abuse.; Nuns; Orphanages.; Priests.