Judge John Roll Was a Hero: Why Didn't We Know This?

Federal Judge John Roll was killed in Tucson trying to save another man’s life. As soon as madman Jared Lee Loughner finished his attempt to murder Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, he turned his gun on the people to his left, then the people to his right. Recently released video shows his first target to the right was Ron Barber, Gifford’s district director, who was standing next to Justice John Roll.

Barber was shot in the arm. Judge Roll then pushed him down and, shielding Barber with his own body, steered him to shelter under a nearby table. While under the table, Loughner aimed for Roll’s exposed back and pulled the trigger. The video continues as Judge Roll looks up over his right shoulder, lies back down and dies at the scene.

Why don’t we know that? We know that an intern to Gifford, Daniel Hernandez, held Congresswoman Gifford’s head in his lap, putting pressure on the wound to save her life. We know that retired Army National Guard Colonel Bill Badger, though injured, tackled Loughner. We know Joe Zamudio, a young bystander carrying a gun, ran to the scene initially to stop the shooter by his own deadly force, but aided Badger instead in the restraint. While both held Loughner, Patricia Maisch removed another loaded magazine from Loughner’s pocket.

We know the stories of these people well as recounted by the press and by President Obama at the memorial service. We are collectively proud of them and each deserve recognition and praise. But what about Judge Roll?

One could argue that reports of the video were just released. Even so, should this news not be shouted from the rooftops? Chief Judge of the Ninth Circuit…gives his life for another! Instead, the headline in the Washington Post read, “In videos, details of shooting emerge.” And the dramatic details of the judge’s heroism are not reported until two thirds of the way through the article. The heroism of the judge was THE most remarkable information in the story, but the Post didn’t bother to headline it.

Did no one know about Judge Roll’s actions until this week? Did the man whose life he saved, Ron Barber, know nothing of the judge’s selflessness as he left the hospital and headed directly, respectfully to the funeral? Did no one at the scene relay the story? Did investigators not get Barber’s account of his own shooting? More than 250 federal agents and 130 local detectives have conducted more than 300 interviews to determine the facts.

Why don’t we know these facts? The Tucson shootings are a huge story. Everyday we hear the updates of Congressman Giffords’ recovery, but hardly a word of this profound development.

Democratic advisors were brazenly quick to telegraph how the shooting should be managed. They followed an earlier suggestion by Democratic Pollster, Mark Penn, that Obama needs a “similar event” to the Oklahoma City bombing to reconnect with disenchanted voters. Some actually opined that lucky Bush had his 9/11 and wondered if this could be Obama’s moment. Such a tragic crisis should not be wasted, as Rahm Emmanuel has famously said.

Could it be the heroes of this story have been chosen and that Judge Roll doesn’t fit the template? Appointed by President George H.W. Bush, could it be that Judge Roll’s act of courage was seen to diminish or interfere with the aggrandizement of a Democratic Congresswoman from her tragic shooting? Could it be that in an attempt to trade on her tragic circumstances, the report of a heroic Republican Judge would be inconvenient?

The killing of a federal judge has never been a small thing. Judges are appointed for life and in many ways, wield more influence and authority than sitting Congressmen. Judge John Roll is only the 4th to be killed in America’s history. The last was Robert S. Vance of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit who died in 1989 from an explosion of a pipe bomb mailed to his home in Alabama. The FBI, in a status reserved for events like 9/11, deemed it a “major case”. A task force called “VanPac” didn’t stop until the Georgia man responsible was convicted of murder. The message has always been clear: Don’t touch a federal judge.

But Judge John Roll’s murder seems more of an aside…a happenstance worth only a mention… and the story now revealed of his personal heroism a great “Ho-Hum.”

Judges make difficult decisions that affect us all. If we want them to judge free from wrong influences, they must be protected at all costs. Their killing, purposeful or inadvertent must be treated with great seriousness. Their murder or their heroism must not be ignored nor should the death and heroism of others be exploited for political advantage.

Six people are dead and eighteen more wounded. At last Obama has his crisis, and it appears it shall not be wasted. And that’s why the American public may never know about the heroism of Judge John Roll.

Could it be because Judge Roll was a 4th Degree Knight of Columbus who attended daily Mass?

“Judge John Roll: A life of authentic Catholic witness

In January 2008, at the invitation of Bishop Thomas Olmsted, I gave a homily at the annual Red Mass for attorneys, judges and public officials in Phoenix. The theme wasn’t new; I’ve said it a hundred times. So has Bishop Olmsted. So have many other bishops. But over the past weekend I dug it out and reread the homily’s last few lines:

“We’re citizens of heaven first. Our time here is limited. This life passes. Eternity is forever. We need to act in this world accordingly, with lives of Christian service to the poor and afflicted—including the unborn child, the immigrant, the homeless and the elderly. The more authentically Catholic we are in our lives, our choices, our actions and our convictions, the more truly we will contribute to the moral and political life of our nation.”

Sitting in the congregation that day was a woman named Maureen, an active and very committed Catholic, and a veteran of crisis pregnancy counseling with Tucson’s Catholic Charities. After the liturgy she moved on to the other tasks of her day, as I did mine. Except that Maureen apparently talked about the Red Mass with her spouse. And 10 months later, after the 2008 election, I got the first of several extraordinary letters from her husband—John Roll, chief judge of the federal District of Arizona; the same John Roll who died in the terrible Jan. 8 shootings in Tucson.

It’s impossible to fully know a man from correspondence alone. But each of John Roll’s letters had the same four clear marks: generosity; intelligence, largeness of spirit and a sincere love for his Catholic faith. Two days after Roll’s murder, his law clerk, attorney Aaron Martin, described to me the kind of man he was.

Roll was devoted to St. Thomas More and kept a biography of the saint on a table near his desk. He liked mentoring young Christian attorneys because he believed their faith gave them a better moral foundation for the vocation of law. For Martin and for Judge Roll’s other clerks, “he was more of a father figure than a boss. He knew our families, and he always wanted to hear the news about them.” He had the habit of reading a range of Catholic publications every Sunday morning before Mass to learn more about his faith. He swam nearly every morning at the local YMCA to stay in shape, and he made daily Mass as often as he could. He liked to joke about a federal marshal who was once assigned to him as round the clock security for a month when he was facing threats. The marshal said, “Judge, I’m a Catholic, but I’ve been to Mass more in the last 30 days than in the past 10 years.”

John Roll would have turned 64 on Feb. 8. He had three sons and five grandchildren. Maureen and John Roll had known each other, according to Aaron Martin, since they were 14 or 15. They were, throughout their life together, each other’s best friends. They would have celebrated their 41st wedding anniversary later this month.

John Roll was, finally, a man of unusual personal graciousness. Despite their political differences, Judge Roll and Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, a Democrat, had a cordial relationship of mutual respect. Giffords sought more resources for the court system, and Judge Roll was grateful. Precisely because of their differences, Roll tried to greet Giffords at her local appearances whenever he could. On the morning of his death, Roll went to Mass, and at 9:55 a.m., according to Martin, left his house to just “drop in” on Giffords’ public gathering as a courtesy, to say hello. He never came home.

This life passes. Eternity is forever. We need to act in this world accordingly, with lives of Christian service. Maureen and John Roll shared a life of quiet, powerful, authentic Catholic witness. Please keep them both, and the entire Roll family, in your prayers.
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Most Rev. Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M., Cap. is the Archbishop of Denver.”

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