TBA Law Blog

TBA Law Blog

Retired Court of Appeals Judge Charles D. Susano Dies at 86

Posted by: Kate Prince on May 10, 2022
News Type: Passages

Retired Court of Appeals Judge Charles D. Susano Jr. died on May 7. He was 86. Susano was in private practice for 30 years before being appointed to the Court of Appeals by former Gov. Ned McWherter in 1994. Susano remained on the bench for more than 25 years. At the time of his retirement in April 2020, he was the longest serving appellate judge in Tennessee, authoring more than 1,000 opinions and serving as chief judge of the Court of Appeals from 2013 to 2015. For the last 30 years, Susano was confined to a wheelchair after a sleepwalking accident left him paralyzed from the waist down. “I’m only handicapped if I let myself be,” Susano once said. “At worst, I have been challenged, forcing me to reinvent new ways to negotiate the new times.” Susano’s family will receive friends on May 16 from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. EDT at at the Cathedral Hall at Sacred Heart in Knoxville. A funeral mass will be held on May 17 at 10 a.m. EDT at the Cathedral of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus. The Administrative Office of the Courts has more on where the public may make donations in Susano’s honor.

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