Harry Pregerson, federal judge

Los Angeles (AP) — Judge Harry Pregerson, who sat on the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals for nearly 40 years and championed the underprivileged on the bench and off, has died, his family said. He was 94.

The unapologetically liberal and occasionally controversial judge died Saturday night at his home near Los Angeles, his daughter-in-law Sharon Pregerson told the Los Angeles Times. He had suffered from respiratory ailments, she said.

The California native was appointed to the 9th Circuit in 1979 by President Jimmy Carter. At his Senate confirmation hearing Pregerson said he would let his conscience inform his rulings.

“My conscience is a product of the Ten Commandments, the Bill of Rights, the Boy Scout Oath and the Marine Corps Hymn,” he told senators. “If I had to follow my conscience or the law, I would follow my conscience.”

He stirred criticism when he refused to follow a 2003 U.S. Supreme Court ruling upholding California’s tough threestrikes sentencing law. Shortly after the court’s decision, Pregerson dissented in rulings that upheld life sentences, some for relatively minor crimes.

Previously Pregerson angered some when he issued an order in 1992 to put a hold on the execution of Robert Alton Harris, who was already strapped inside the gas chamber. The Supreme Court later overturned Pregerson’s decision, and Harris was executed as planned.

Conservatives were infuriated when he overturned death sentences and accused him of activism. Some prosecutors said they dreaded appearing before him, according to the Times. Pregerson said he simply believed that many death row inmates had not been given fair trials.