Leonidas "Leon" Jaworski was an American attorney and law professor who served as the second special prosecutor during the Watergate Scandal.
24 Facts About Leon Jaworski
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Leon Jaworski's mother, Marie, was an Austrian immigrant, and his father, Joseph Jaworski, was a Polish immigrant who was an evangelical minister.
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Leon Jaworski was named after ancient Spartan king Leonidas, and had a brother named Hannibal.
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Leon Jaworski served as President of both the Texas Bar Association and the American Bar Association prior to his appointment as Special Prosecutor.
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Leon Jaworski was President of the Houston Chamber of Commerce in 1960 and served on many corporate and civic boards.
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Leon Jaworski served in the United States Army and served in the judge advocate office.
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Leon Jaworski led the prosecution in multiple cases, including the Johannes Kunze murder trial, where five German prisoners of war were accused of beating a fellow prisoner to death for being a "traitor".
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Thereafter, Leon Jaworski prosecuted forty-three African-American soldiers, of whom twenty-eight were convicted, in what was the longest US Army court-martial of World War II.
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In 2007 the US Army Board for Correction of Military Records ordered all those convictions reversed on the grounds that Leon Jaworski had committed "egregious error".
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However, Leon Jaworski declined to participate in the Nuremberg Trials on the grounds that the prosecution there was based on laws that did not exist at the time of the culpable acts.
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Leon Jaworski was a friend of fellow Texan Lyndon Baines Johnson, whom he successfully represented in a 1960 lawsuit filed to prevent Johnson from campaigning for the US Senate against Republican John Tower at the same time that Johnson was running for Vice President of the United States on the John F Kennedy ticket.
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On November 1,1973, Leon Jaworski became the Special Prosecutor in the Watergate scandal, assuming leadership of a protracted contest with President Nixon to secure evidence for the trial of former senior administration officials on charges relating to the Watergate scandal.
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On November 1,1973, Bork announced he selected, and Nixon approved, Leon Jaworski to replace Cox.
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Aware that an important constitutional issue was at stake, and unwilling to wait any longer, Leon Jaworski asked the Supreme Court to take the case directly, bypassing the Court of Appeals.
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Nixon was forced to give the unedited tapes to Leon Jaworski, including the so-called Smoking Gun Tape which included a compromising discussion of June 23,1972.
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In discussions with the grand jury, Leon Jaworski cited "the trauma of the country," and prior to Nixon's resignation, the lack of precedent for indicting a sitting president.
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Leon Jaworski resigned as special prosecutor on October 25,1974, once the cover-up trial had begun, and a new special prosecutor was appointed.
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Leon Jaworski was a close friend of Dean Ernest Raba of St Mary's University School of Law in San Antonio, where he taught as an adjunct professor for several years.
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In 1977, Leon Jaworski reluctantly agreed to serve as special counsel to a House Ethics Committee investigation to determine whether members had indirectly or directly accepted anything of value from the government of the Republic of Korea.
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Leon Jaworski died on December 9,1982, while chopping wood at the Circle J Ranch near Wimberley in Hays County, Texas.
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Leon Jaworski's son, Joseph Jaworski, is a former lawyer turned best-selling author and leadership expert.
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In 1971, Leon Jaworski received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement.
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In 1988, the HBAA Leon Jaworski Award was initiated to honor a lawyer for a lifetime of volunteer service.
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State and national bar associations reward professional achievement; the granting of the Leon Jaworski Award is based solely on service to the greater Houston community.