Illinois Supreme Court Justice Moses W. Harrison II

“I had the great pleasure of meeting Illinois Supreme Court Justice Moses W. Harrison II — or “Mose,” as he liked to be called — about the time he declared his candidacy for the Illinois Supreme Court in 1987. We became dear friends over the years.  Named after his paternal grandfather, Justice Harrison was highly respected and the first Italian American to serve on the state’s high court. the Court, followed 2 by the esteemed Justice Bob Thomas (of Notre Dame and Chicago Bears fame).

Justice Harrison was born in Collinsville, a city in far southern Illinois, on March 30, 1932. He was the grandson of a physician and the son of dentist Clarence Harrison and nurse Loretta O’Hara Harrison (maiden name Darfado). He was extremely proud of his Italian ancestry and wore his Italian ethnicity on his sleeve.

Harrison attended Collinsville High School where he was a good student and, in 1950, an outstanding basketball forward on the “Kahok” team ranked 4th in the 3 state. Harrison earned money for his college tuition by working at a concrete-block plant, as a Colorado ranch hand, truck driver, and organizer for the Teamsters union. In fact, he bragged about and cherished his union history and support his entire career.

Harrison graduated in 1954 with a degree in political science from Colorado College, where he also played intercollegiate college basketball. After graduation, Harrison returned to the Midwest to attend the highly ranked Washington University School of Law in St. Louis. He was later admitted to the Illinois and Missouri bars after graduating with honors in 1958.

For fifteen years he engaged in private practice at law, initially in an office next door to his father’s dental practice, and eventually becoming a senior partner at Harrison, Rarick, and Cadigan. In fact, Harrison’s former law partner, Philip J. Rarick, succeeded him on the Supreme Court at Justice Harrison’s recommendation.

On December 30, 1961, he married the love of his life, Sharon Phillips, whom he met in his father’s dental office. They became the parents of two sons, Luke and Clarence, the latter of whom became a highly respected Illinois associate judge in his own right in Collinsville.

While practicing law, Harrison was elected to the Board of Governors of the Illinois State Bar Association. He proudly held this position with, in his own voiced opinion, the best bar association in the country and was a career supporter. Harrison also served as president of the Madison County Bar Association, a member of the Collinsville City Council, and as the city’s finance commissioner.

Justice Harrison was appointed by the Illinois Supreme Court in 1973 as a judge of the Third Judicial Circuit. The following year, Harrison was elected as a Democrat to the position and served two terms as chief judge of the circuit, including Bond and Madison counties. In 1979, the Supreme Court appointed Harrison to the thirty-seven-county Fifth District Appellate Court in Mount Vernon and was elected to that Court in 1980.

Serving two terms as presiding judge of the Illinois Appellate Court, he won his retention election in 1990. In 1992, he ran in the contest to fill the vacancy of Illinois Supreme Court Justice Horace L. Calvo. Harrison defeated, in his own words, “three worthy opponents”— two in the primary and Republican Don W. Weber in the general election.

In November 1998, Justice Harrison gained national attention for his sole dissenting opinion in People v. Bull, after the Court affirmed the death sentence of Donald Bull for the murders of a mother and her three-year-old son. An extremely religious man, Justice Harrison was a staunch career opponent of the Illinois death penalty.

Citing the cases of nine men wrongly convicted of murder and sentenced to death, Harrison wrote, “Some would suggest that the freedom now enjoyed by these nine men demonstrates that our criminal justice system is working effectively with adequate safeguards. If there had been only one or two wrongful death penalty cases, I might be persuaded to accept that view. When there have been so many mistakes in such a short span of time, however, the only conclusion I can draw is that the system does not work as the Constitution requires it to, … When a system is as prone to error as ours is, we should not be making irrevocable decisions about any human life.”

Three months later, death row inmate Anthony Porter came within two days of execution before he was exonerated in the slayings of two men. In early 1999, shortly after People v. Bull, Justice Harrison issued a stay of execution for Chicago gang member Andrew Kokoraleis, who was convicted of six murders, but a majority on the Supreme Court overturned the stay. Harrison dissented, stating, “My colleagues seem to regard the existence of Kokoraleis’ appeal [for the murder of Lorraine Borowski] as nothing more than a bureaucratic nuisance…They forget that under Supreme Court Rule 651(a), appeals from judgments of the circuit court in post-conviction proceedings involving judgments imposing death sentences are not optional or a matter for the court’s discretion. Such appeals lie to the Supreme Court ‘as a matter of right.’”

After then-Governor George Ryan denied clemency, Kokoraleis became the last person executed in Illinois. The following year, Ryan ordered a moratorium on executions, and in 2011, Governor Pat Quinn signed legislation abolishing the death penalty. Mose took pride in the fact that his actions impacted this significant event.

In November 2000, Harrison became Illinois Chief Justice for a two-year term, succeeding Charles E. Freeman. Harrison guided the adoption of sweeping new rules governing the conduct and trial of death penalty cases. During his decade-long Supreme Court tenure, he authored 136 majority opinions, twenty-two special concurrences, and 195 dissents.

Approaching the end of his 10-year term and not in the best health, Justice Harrison announced his retirement from the Court in September 2002 at the age of seventy. During his lengthy career, Harrison held memberships in addition to the Illinois State Bar Association, including Metropolitan Bar Association of St. Louis, Tri-City Bar Association, Madison County Bar Association, American Bar Association, American Judicature Society, National Italian American Judges Association, Justinian Society of Lawyers, and the Illinois Judges Association.

Among numerous honors, Harrison received the Illinois State Bar Association’s Access to Justice Award in 2001. Furthermore, the Justinian Society named an annual award in his honor, formally known as “The Moses W. Harrison II Award,” to recognize one member for a career of dedication to the law and the community.

It was 1986 or early 1987 that Justice Harrison made the acquaintance of some of our Justinian judges through a National Italian American Judges Association—Tony Scotillo, Charley Porcellino, Angelo Mistretta (all now deceased) and others. They asked me to co-chair a Cook County fundraiser for him.

The fundraiser in Cook County was held by the Justinian Society, at the old Como Inn, where we raised a ton of dough for our new charismatic friend. The event was held on August 5, 1992. The esteemed Bruno J. Tassone shared the co-chairmanship with me and the “committee-to-elect” including Enrico J. Mirabelli, Anthony B. Ferraro, John G. Locallo, Joseph F. Locallo, Jr., Richard B. Caifano, Lisa A. Marino, Joseph G. Bisceglia, Salvatore J. Tornatore, Anthony F. Spina, Anthony C. Erbacci, Michael D. Monico, and Attilio V. Fiumetto.

Throughout his career, he attributed that early Justinian fundraising event as a reason for his subsequent ability to raise many other dollars in Cook County and help to be elected to the bench. He said we gave him credibility in this part of the state. He never missed a Justinian event, and he especially looked forward to the Annual Installation and Awards Dinner, many of which you folks have attended.

He honored us by accepting our Award of Excellence early on after having been elected to the Illinois Supreme Court. When he became Chief Justice, the Justinian Society honored the Justice by creating the Justinian Society Moses W. Harrison Recognition Award, as mentioned above, and among some of the paragraphs written on the award are these words: “Now therefore, because of the great respect and esteem in which he is held in the state of Illinois, the Justinian Society has created an award in the name of Justice W. Harrison II, someone of dignity and great esteem to have demonstrated the path of the Justice, a career of improving the condition of people in the state of Illinois.”

In retirement, Harrison was a member of St. Michael’s Episcopal Church in O’Fallon, Illinois, and a former senior warden of Christ Episcopal Church of Collinsville. Harrison eventually died at the age of eighty-one on April 25, 2013, at Missouri Baptist Hospital in St. Louis following a lengthy illness.

At a ceremony honoring Justice Harrison in the Supreme Court in Springfield on September 24, 2013, the Chief Justice Thomas Kilbride stated: “Moses personified the epitome of the word gentleman. He was in fact gentle, for the most part, except when he forcefully argued a point of law he passionately believed in, but all in all, he was a classical true gentleman. I have always placed Moses in the category of the million-dollar club…because he always made everyone around him feel like a million bucks. He had that way as one from the greatest generation ever of always being gracious to everyone. When he was in the majority, he delightfully welcomed any dissent, the more forceful all the better, according to Moses.”

My pal Mose truly loved his wife Sharon and his children and grandchildren, the St. Louis Cardinals, the law, his community, fishing (walleye, muskies in Canada with Herb Frank’s annual fishing trip, and fly fishing in the Ozarks), and an Italian dinner up on “The Hill” in St. Louis (especially penne with a light marinara sauce)—and in that order. Justice Harrison was a consummate (admitted with pride) progressive liberal, an advocate always for “the common man.”

This humble Judge made many friends, significantly impacted Illinois law, and left a legacy for which he was very proud. When asked how he saw his role, he said “People often ask me how I see my role as a judge: it is to protect ordinary citizens against wrongdoing by the Government, large corporations, and powerful individuals.” Truly, a man for all seasons.