Judge and rights fighter Smith dies

RETIRED JUDGE George Bundy Smith, who sat on New York State’s highest court and earlier in his life was arrested as a civil rights “Freedom Rider,” has died. He was 80.

Then-Gov. Mario Cuomo appointed Smith (right) to the Court of Appeals in 1992. He served until 2006.

His son told The Associated Press that Smith, a Yale Law school graduate, died Saturday at his Harlem home after a short illness.

Smith was arrested in 1961 during a Freedom Ride to Alabama when he sat at a whites-only counter. The U.S Supreme Court later overturned his conviction.

Gov. Cuomo, whose father had appointed Smith to the appeals court, on Monday remembered the jurist as committed and passionate.

“From his days as a Freedom Rider, to serving as a jurist on the state trial courts, to his tenure on the state’s highest court, where he wrote the decision outlawing the death penalty in this state, Judge Bundy Smith lived a life of distinction and public service,” Cuomo said.