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Thelton Henderson
Thelton Henderson has served as Senior Judge in the Northern District of California since 1998. He was appointed as U.S. District Court Judge in 1980 by President Jimmy Carter. From 1990 to 1997 he served as Chief Judge for the Northern District of California. He has played an important role in the field of civil rights as a lawyer, educator and jurist.
Judge Henderson received his B.A. and his J.D. from U.C. Berkeley. In 1962, he became the Justice Department’s first African-American lawyer in the Civil Rights Division.
He presided over the landmark 1995 civil rights case, Madrid v. Gomez where Henderson found the use of force and level of medical care at the notorious Pelican Bay State Prison unconstitutional. In 2005 he found that substandard medical care in the California prison system had violated prisoners’ rights under the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution to be protected from cruel and unusual punishment and had led to unnecessary deaths in California prisons.
“Soul of Justice: Thelton Henderson’s American Journal”, a documentary that traces his path from his childhood in Watts, through his career as a civil rights lawyer and ultimately his role as a judge.
Judge Henderson received his B.A. and his J.D. from U.C. Berkeley. In 1962, he became the Justice Department’s first African-American lawyer in the Civil Rights Division.
He presided over the landmark 1995 civil rights case, Madrid v. Gomez where Henderson found the use of force and level of medical care at the notorious Pelican Bay State Prison unconstitutional. In 2005 he found that substandard medical care in the California prison system had violated prisoners’ rights under the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution to be protected from cruel and unusual punishment and had led to unnecessary deaths in California prisons.
“Soul of Justice: Thelton Henderson’s American Journal”, a documentary that traces his path from his childhood in Watts, through his career as a civil rights lawyer and ultimately his role as a judge.