Lee Wyatt

Lee Buren Wyatt (July 13, 1890 – February 6, 1960) was a Georgia lawyer and politician who served as a justice of the Supreme Court of Georgia from 1943 until his death in 1960. During his service on the court, he took a leave of absence in 1947 and 1948 to preside over Nazi war crimes trials in Nuremberg, Germany.

Early life, education, and career Born in Centralhatchee, Heard County, Georgia, In 1933, Wyatt presided over the trial of Angelo Herndon, an African-American labor organizer arrested and convicted of insurrection after attempting to organize black and white industrial workers in 1932 in Atlanta, Georgia. A later account of the trial described Wyatt as "an inexperienced judge brought in from the rural counties that constituted the base of political support for the segregationists who dominated state-level politics in Georgia".

Wyatt treated both Herndon and Herndon's African-American lawyer, Benjamin J. Davis Jr., with disdain, pointedly turning away or reading a newspaper when Davis made arguments before the court. However, Wyatt was noted to have "ended the proceedings with an unexpectedly fair jury charge that raised serious questions about whether Herndon had taken enough concrete steps toward immediate revolution as to violate the statute", a decision that was described as taking a risk, because this jury instruction "was more protective of Herndon's Communist advocacy than either the Georgia Supreme Court's interpretation of the statute or the U.S. Supreme Court's emerging First Amendment 'clear and present danger' test". The conviction was later overturned on appeal.

Georgia Supreme Court justice and Nuremberg Trials judge In 1943, Governor Ellis Arnall appointed Wyatt to a seat on the state supreme court vacated by the elevation of R. C. Bell to the office of chief justice. Wyatt was then elected to a full term on the court in 1944, running unopposed. In March 1947, Wyatt was a judge during the three governors controversy, ruling against Governor Talmadge.

In the aftermath of World War II, and while still serving on the court, Wyatt took a leave of absence to accept an appointment from President Harry S. Truman to preside over Nazi war crimes trials in Nuremberg, Germany, for which he "achieved international fame".

In 1953, Wyatt became presiding justice of the state supreme court, following the death of Justice William Yates Atkinson.