Former Chief Justice dies giving lecture at UNM

Posted at: 11/04/2009 8:18 PM | Updated at: 11/05/2009 7:29 AM
By: Antoinette Antonio, Eyewitness News 4; Charlie Pabst, KOB.com

Former state Supreme Court Chief Justice Gene Franchini died Wednesday afternoon while addressing first-year law students at the University of New Mexico.

Justice Franchini was giving his annual speech on ethics and the role of a judge when he collapsed on Wednesday evening. The audience included more than 100 law students, faculty, and his wife.

His death is hitting UNM's law community very hard.

Retired UNM law professor Michael Browde said, "We were all just floored, just shocked, to think that Gene is no longer with us, because he's meant so much—not just to the law school but really to the entire profession."

Browde heard of Justice Franchini's passing through an e-mail to the UNM law community.

Faculty members say Franchini was at the end of his lecture when he suffered a heart attack and died.

Students tried to perform CPR on Franchini until emergency crews arrived. Paramedics also tried to revive Franchini, but were unsuccessful.

Franchini served on the New Mexico Supreme Court from 1990 to 2002.

He's being remembered as a lion in New Mexico's law community, a big supporter of the law school, and a man who made a huge impact on students.

"Anyone, certainly of my generation, knew Gene as a friend, as a colleague, as someone you could argue with all day and still go out and have a beer with, and he was an inspiration to everyone, because he cared so deeply about the profession."

The mood at UNM's law school was very somber as students cope with what happened in front of their fellow classmates.

Law student Sheldon Spottedelk said Wednesday, "It puts a lot of things into context about what life is, about, you know, a lot of times as law students [we] get wrapped up in school, but I don't know, I think that brings a human aspect of life back to us."

Justice Franchini also served as a judge advocate for the National Guard, and he was involved in the state's high school mock trial competition for 20 years.

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