Harold Medina | |
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Senior Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit | |
In office March 1, 1958 – February 22, 1980 |
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Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit | |
In office June 23, 1951 – March 1, 1958 |
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Nominated by | Harry S. Truman |
Preceded by | Learned Hand |
Succeeded by | Henry Friendly |
Judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York | |
In office June 20, 1947 – June 23, 1951 |
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Nominated by | Harry S. Truman |
Preceded by | Samuel Mandelbaum |
Succeeded by | Thomas Francis Murphy |
Personal details | |
Born |
Harold Raymond Medina February 16, 1888 Brooklyn, New York |
Died | March 14, 1990 Westwood, New Jersey |
(aged 102)
Children | Harold Medina, Jr., Standish Medina |
Harold Raymond Medina, Sr. (February 16, 1888 – March 14, 1990) was an American lawyer, teacher and judge who is most noted for hearing landmark cases of conspiracy and treason.
A resident of a nursing home in Westwood, New Jersey, Medina died in 1990 at the age of 102 at Pascack Valley Hospital.
Medina was born in Brooklyn, New York to Joaquin Adolfo Medina and Elizabeth Fash Medina. His father was a naturalized United States citizen from Mérida, Yucatán, Mexico, and his mother from New York City of Dutch ancestry. Medina graduated from Holbrook Military Academy in Ossining, New York in 1905. After high school, he attended Princeton University and graduated Phi Beta Kappa with an A.B. degree in 1909. He received a L.L.B. degree from Columbia Law School, where he graduated as co-head of his class in 1912. He married Ethel Forde Hillyer in 1911.
In 1912, Medina founded a private practice as an attorney in New York City, which he ran until asked to join government in 1947 as a judge. Concurrently, he founded and ran the "Medina Bar Review Course" (1912–1942). In addition, he was an associate professor at Columbia Law School (1915-1940).
In 1947 President Harry S. Truman nominated Medina to serve as a federal judge in the Southern District of New York. In 1949, he presided over the trial of 11 leaders of the U.S. Communist Party charged with advocating the violent overthrow of the government. This was known as Foley Square trial. In this case, the jury found all the defendants guilty, and Medina sentenced most of them to five years in prison. He also gave prison sentences to five of the defense attorneys on charges of contempt of court; among them was George William Crockett Jr., who later became a Member of Congress.