Richard Conway Casey, the first visually challenged federal judge, departs

Richard Conway Casey, 74, Blind Federal Judge Richard Conway Casey of the United States District Court in Manhattan, who was the nation's first blind federaltrial judge and presided over high-profile cases including an abortion-law challenge and the Peter Gotti trial, died on Thursday.
Richard Conway Casey, 74, Blind Federal Judge Richard Conway Casey of the United States District Court in Manhattan, who was the nation's first blind federaltrial judge and presided over high-profile cases including an abortion-law challenge and the Peter Gotti trial, died on Thursday. He was 74. The apparentcause was a heart attack, his office said.
Judge Casey, who spent almost a decade on the bench, was nominated for federal judgeship by President Bill Clinton in 1997, 10 years after he became blindfrom retinitis pigmentosa, an inherited degenerative eye disease.
He presided over several trials that attracted public interest, including the constitutional challenge of the federal Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act andthe prosecution of Mr. Gotti, the Gambino crime family boss.
On the bench, he was blunt with lawyers and witnesses alike.
During the 2004 trial to consider the law banning certain second-trimester abortions, Judge Casey asked a doctor if doctors ever hear a baby cry duringan abortion. He asked the same doctor if a mother can detect in advance that a baby will be born blind.
In several interviews with The Associated Press in recent years, Judge Casey said he used humor and a newly developed love of skiing to help cope with hisloss of sight.
'It doesn't start out funny being blind,' he said. You get mad. You get angry. You get depressed. But then you choose to either sit there and wait to die,or you get up and you move on. Once you make that decision, then you can find humor.'
Sometimes, he found the humor in himself.
When a law clerk walked him into a courtroom wall, he snapped, 'You're fired. Bring back my guide dog.' Laughter filled the room.
He was born in Ithaca, N.Y., and played football at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass. After graduating from Georgetown University Law Center,he worked as a federal prosecutor in Manhattan from 1960 to 1963, getting convictions of three Russian spies.
By 1964, he joined a firm now called Sidley Austin Brown & Wood, focusing on securities and corporate litigation.
That same year, he learned he had retinitis pigmentosa. He lost his vision entirely in 1987, just after the New York Giants won the Super Bowl. A seasonticket holder since 1961, he continued to attend games.
His survivors include a son, Richard Conway Casey Jr., and a granddaughter.
Judge Casey had to overcome skeptics when he took on a load of 300 to 400 cases beginning in late 1997, using computer and audio technology while studyingdocuments and preparing to speak in court.
Some questioned whether a blind judge could accurately assess the credibility of a witness he could not see. Judge Casey said truth could be found by followingthe facts to see if they held together in a coherent, logical way. He did occasionally swap a trademark case with a colleague because it depended on visualobservation.