R.I.P Judge Walter R. Stone

Rhode Island Superior Court Judge Walter R. Stone of Bristol, a civil rights activist and one of Rhode Island’s top trial lawyers before his elevation to Superior Court, where he served as one of the very few African-American judges in the state, died today in a Newport hospice after a long illness. He was 73.

A former assistant attorney general, where he was a criminal prosecutor, Stone left to become one of Rhode Island’s most respected trial and criminal lawyers. In a remarkable career, he prosecuted 25 murder cases and defended 25 murder cases as a defense lawyer.

A compact man with expressive brown eyes and a wide smile, Stone was a grand raconteur blessed with a rapier wit. An intellectual and history buff, he was a coveted dinner companion. A Vietnam War U.S. Marine combat veteran, Stone was a graduate of Fisk University and the Case Western Reserve Law School. After serving as assistant attorney general, he became a partner in the Providence firm of Adler, Pollock and Sheehan. He was also a founder of the law firm Stone, Clifton and Clifton in Providence.

He was a longtime legal counsel in the professional boxing world, where he rubbed elbows with such boxing luminaries as Don King. He had many, many stories about the raffish world of boxing.

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