The Case That Changed John Paul Stevens’s Life

Retired Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens, who died Tuesday at the age of 99, saw many remarkable sights in his life, famously including the “called shot” home run hit by Babe Ruth during the Yankees-Cubs World Series game in 1932.

Yet the most important thing this remarkable jurist saw, I suspect, was the arrest of his father, Ernest Stevens, on charges that he and two other family members had embezzled funds to cover losses at their downtown-Chicago hotel.

Ernest was convicted, but his conviction was overturned a year later by an appeals court that found “not a scintilla” of evidence of criminal intent. Like most tales of criminal justice, however, this one has no happy ending. John Paul’s grandfather, J.W., stunned by the disgrace, died of a stroke while charges were pending; his uncle Raymond