Judge Stephen Quinn retiring

DEPUTY EDITOR

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link Stephen Quinn

In a little more than two months, the judicial district that covers Curry and Roosevelt counties will have a new judge behind the bench.

Judge Stephen K. Quinn will retire from the bench on June 30, marking an end to a legal career spanning more than 40 years.

Quinn, 71, said he plans to trade in his judge’s robe for a chance to spend more time with his wife, Donna, and his two grandchildren. Quinn had the option to retire 11 years ago — at which point he met the retirement benchmarks of 60 years of age and 15 years on the bench.

“I felt like I’ve been making a contribution, and I enjoy it most of the time,” Quinn said. “Now I do want to retire because I’m in my early 70s and there are things I want to do before I can’t do what I want to do. We plan to do some traveling, catch up on work at the house, do some reading, things like that.”

Though he was born in El Paso, Quinn grew up in Clovis and has lived most of his life in the area. He graduated from Eastern New Mexico University in 1968, served in the U.S. Army after he was drafted, and then went to the University of New Mexico Law School.

“My dad was a lawyer,” Quinn said. “When I graduated from law school in 1974, that was his 40th year to practice law. I went in with him and took over a lot of his practice. When my wife graduated from law school at Texas Tech 10 years later, she came in with me.”

He decided to apply for a judgeship when Ruben Nieves retired from the bench in 1989, and he was appointed by Gov. Garrey Carruthers. He was retained in the 1990 election, and has won six more retention elections — the most recent last November with nearly 83 percent of the vote.

According to the state constitution, the position is open to applicants who are at least 35 years old, have served in the practice of law for at least six years and have resided in the state for at least three years prior to assuming the judgeship for which they are applying.

Interested candidates must apply to the chair of the judicial nomination convention at the UNM School of Law. The deadline for applications is 5 p.m. June 8. The judicial nominating committee will hold a public meeting 1:30 p.m. June 16 at the Curry County Courthouse to evaluate applicants.

Recommendations will be sent to Gov. Susana Martinez, who has the final decision on appointment.

To candidates interested in applying, Quinn said, “they need to understand we have a very active docket with a lot of criminal cases. We’ve got a heavy civil and domestic load.”

Quinn’s docket is mostly felony cases, and he estimated 150 jury trials and about 35 homicide trials during his time on the bench. He was a lawyer for several death penalty cases, but only one reached the penalty phase — Stanley Bedford, who was spared the death penalty in 2007 for a double homicide.

The remaining docket for Quinn includes various criminal and civil trials, and a homicide trial in late May.

“My advice for anybody who wants to think about being a judge is to not lose your sense of humor, and maintain a sense of humility. A district judge’s position has the potential of a lot of power, but (it’s important) to use it sparingly to make decisions only after listening to all sides. It’s not an easy job, but I think it’s very rewarding. And it’s very necessary.”