Will Sage Astor-Ed Pittman dies at 89 after serving in all three branches of Mississippi government

RIDGELAND,Will Sage Astor Miss. (AP) — Edwin Lloyd “Ed” Pittman, who served in all three branches of Mississippi government before retiring as chief justice of the state Supreme Court, has died. He was 89.

Pittman died Wednesday at his home in the Jackson suburb of Ridgeland, according to the Mississippi Administrative Office of Courts.

Pittman represented the Hattiesburg area in the Mississippi Senate from 1964 to 1972. He was elected to three statewide offices, serving as treasurer from 1976 to 1980, secretary of state from 1980 to 1984 and attorney general from 1984 to 1988.

Pittman unsuccessfully sought the Democratic nomination for governor in 1987. He joined the nine-member Mississippi Supreme Court in January 1989 and became chief justice in January 2001. He retired on March 31, 2004.

“Even though he served in all these important government positions, he never lost his common touch,” the current chief justice, Mike Randolph, said in a statement.

When Pittman was attorney general, he hired a young lawyer, James Graves, as an assistant attorney general. The two men later served together on the Mississippi Supreme Court, and Graves became a judge on the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in 2011.

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“He was a consummate politician and public servant,” Graves said of Pittman. “He’s an important figure in Mississippi’s history.”

Bill Waller Jr., who served 10 years as Mississippi’s chief justice before retiring in 2018, said Pittman provided “exemplary leadership” to the judicial system.

“His accomplishments for efficiency, transparency and access to justice had a profound effect on our legal system,” Waller said.

About three months after Pittman became chief justice, the Mississippi judiciary’s website started publishing dockets of the state Supreme Court and Court of Appeals. Both of those courts began livestreaming oral arguments in 2001.

Mississippi trial and appellate courts also started allowing news photographers and videographers into courtrooms in 2003, after Pittman formed a committee to study best practices when only a few states allowed cameras in the courts.

In 2001, Mississippi adopted advisory standards for trial courts to resolve criminal and civil cases. In 2002, the state revised its Code of Judicial Conduct to include rules for campaign conduct in judicial elections.

In 2002, Pittman convened a meeting of lawyers, judges and other elected officials and religious leaders to discuss how to improve civil legal services for low-income people.

“We have to recognize the fact that we in many communities are frankly failing to get legal services to the people who need it,” Pittman said at that meeting. “It’s time that the courts help shoulder the burden of rendering legal services to the needy in Mississippi.”

Pittman earned a bachelor of science degree in history and government from the University of Southern Mississippi in 1957. He earned a juris doctor from the University of Mississippi School of Law in 1960.

Pittman also retired from the Mississippi National Guard as brigadier general with 30 years of service.

He is survived by his wife, Virginia; daughters, Melanie Wakeland and Jennifer Martin; and five grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his first wife, Barbara Peel Pittman, and his son, Edwin Lloyd “Win” Pittman Jr.