Bill Baxley

As Alabama Attorney General, Baxley became known in 1977 for his successful prosecution of Robert Chambliss, a member of a splinter group of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK), in the cold case of the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham on Sunday, September 15, 1963. The dynamite blast, which occurred during the time of nonviolent demonstrations in the Birmingham campaign for integration and voting rights – led by Martin Luther King Jr., James Bevel, Fred Shuttlesworth and others – resulted in the deaths of four young girls and injuries of 14 to 22 others.

In 1968, the FBI formally closed their investigation into the bombing without filing charges against any of their named suspects. The files were sealed by order of J. Edgar Hoover. When Baxley reopened the dormant investigation shortly after being elected in 1971,^[4] he told one interviewer that "There are some people in Jefferson County who ought to be pretty nervous right now",^{[citation needed]} and later told a Birmingham radio station that the list of suspects had been narrowed down, stating "We know who did it."^{[citation needed]}

Baxley confirmed that he had talked to Gary Thomas Rowe,^[4] an FBI paid informant and agent provocateur within the KKK. Baxley said that Rowe had been cooperative, but that "we were working on this thing long before that. We had a lot of stuff already. Rowe was just another person we interviewed."^{[citation needed]}

Baxley succeeded in gaining a guilty verdict by the jury in Chambliss's trial. The families of the four girls who were killed felt that some justice had been achieved. In the early 21st century, when two more suspected conspirators were tried, Baxley was dismayed to learn that the FBI had secretly obtained audio tapes in which defendants had implicated themselves, which had never been offered to him for his own prosecution.^[4]

In 1978, Baxley, then the sitting attorney general, ran to succeed the term-limited George Wallace as governor of Alabama. Baxley lost the Democratic primary to political newcomer Fob James, who defeated Republican nominee Guy Hunt of Cullman. Baxley's campaign had highlighted the fact that James had been a Republican and returned to the Democratic Party to pursue his candidacy. Baxley was endorsed by University of Alabama football coach Bear Bryant, largely because James was a former football letterman for the Crimson Tide's bitter archrival, the Auburn Tigers and their Hall of Fame coach, Shug Jordan.

In 1986, the Democratic primary for the gubernatorial race resulted in then Attorney General Charles Graddick of Mobile in a runoff with Baxley, then the lieutenant governor. Graddick won the run-off election by a few thousand votes, but Baxley appealed to the Alabama Supreme Court. It ruled that Graddick had violated primary regulations by encouraging Republicans to "cross over" and vote as Democrats. The court told the Democratic Party to hold another election, or to affirm Baxley as the nominee. The party confirmed Baxley as its candidate.

Although there had nominally been a ban on crossover voting for years, it had never previously been enforced since Alabama was still a one-party state. Alabama voters were thus used to a de facto open primary system, and protested by throwing their support to Guy Hunt, the GOP nominee. Initially, Hunt was given almost no chance of winning even by his fellow Republicans, who focused on getting a second term for U. S. Senator Jeremiah Denton. However, buoyed by support from Democrats breaking ranks (mostly among Graddick's primary voters), Hunt defeated Baxley by a large margin, giving Alabama its first Republican governor since Reconstruction. The demographics of the party loyalists had switched over the decades. Conservative whites had begun gradually moving to the Republican Party after years of splitting their tickets, while African Americans supported Democratic Party candidates following passage of civil rights legislation in the 1960s that enforced their constitutional rights.

In 1962, Baxley joined in the Alabama Army National Guard, where he began his career as an enlisted clerk. He retired as a colonel on May 29, 2001 (he had turned down the position of General), JAG Corps.

In 1974, Baxley married Lucy Mae Bruner. She also was politically active, and was elected as Alabama lieutenant governor in 2002, serving from 2003 to 2007. They had divorced in 1987.^[5] Baxley was a strong supporter of his ex-wife's campaign.

In 1990, Baxley married Marie (Prat) Baxley, a reporter who had covered his campaign.^[5][6][7]

In 1979, Baxley founded the firm Baxley, Dillard Trial Counsel (by 2006 was Baxley, Dillard, Dauphin, McKnight & Barclift),^[8] in Birmingham. He primarily represented large business corporations, yet also continued to represent individuals of modest means. Those efforts earned him the distinction of being selected as a fellow in the International Academy of Trial Lawyers.^{[citation needed]}

• http://www.archives.state.al.us/conoff/baxley.html Archived 2016-04-03 at the Wayback Machine