William Joseph Baxley II, is an American Democratic politician and attorney from Dothan, Alabama. In 1964, Baxley graduated from the University of Alabama School of Law in Tuscaloosa. Having previously served as district attorney in Houston County, he was elected to the first of two consecutive terms as Attorney General of Alabama in 1970, and 1974 respectively, holding the post from 1971 to 1979. At the age of twenty-eight, he won the Democratic nomination for attorney general in 1970, in an upset over incumbent McDonald Gallion. Baxley, incorrectly, was perceived as the candidate closer politically to George Wallace, an impression he did not dispute throughout the election contest. At the time of his swearing-in, he was the youngest person in U.S. history to hold a state attorney generalship. At the end of his attorney generalship, he lost the 1978 Democratic primary for governor in an upset contest. Although widely expected to seek the post again in 1982, after former governor George C. Wallace entered the contest, Baxley said he would not run against him and sought the office of lieutenant governor, to which he was elected. From 1983 to 1987, he served a single term as the 24thLieutenant Governor of Alabama. He ran unsuccessfully in the primary for governor in 1986. During his time as state attorney general, Baxley aggressively prosecuted industrial polluters, strip miners, and corrupt elected officials. He appointed the state's first African-American assistant attorney general, Myron Thompson, who later became a U.S. District Judge. Baxley reopened the cold case of the 1963 16th Street Baptist Church bombing. In a letter, the Ku Klux Klan threatened him, comparing him to John F. Kennedy, and called him an "honorary nigger." Baxley responded, on official state letterhead: "My response to your letter of February 19, 1976, is—kiss my ass."
Church bombing case
As Alabama Attorney General, Baxley became known in 1977 for his case against a splinter group of the Ku Klux Klan in his prosecution of Robert Chambliss for the cold case of the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham in September 1963. 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.
Runs for governor
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. In 1986, the Democratic primary for the gubernatorial race resulted in then Attorney GeneralCharles Graddick of Mobile in a runoff with Baxley, then the lieutenant governor. After 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. In a sign of changing affiliations among white conservatives, many white voters in Alabama voted for Guy Hunt, the GOP nominee. Hunt won the election by a large margin, resulting in Alabama having its first Republican governor since Reconstruction. The demographics of the party loyalists had switched over the decades, with conservative whites moving to the Republican Party and African Americans supporting Democratic Party candidates following passage of civil rights legislation in the 1960s that enforced their constitutional rights.
Personal life
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, 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. Baxley was a strong supporter of his ex-wife's campaign. In 1990, Baxley married Marie Baxley, a reporter who had covered his campaign. In 1979, Baxley founded the firm known today as Baxley, Dillard, McKnight & James in Birmingham. He has a practice there as an attorney. He primarily represents large business corporations, yet also continues to represent individuals of modest means. Those efforts have earned him the distinction of being selected as a fellow in the International Academy of Trial Lawyers.
