May 14, 2024

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David King, the Orlando ‘legal legend’ behind Honest Districts in Florida, dies at 79

David King, the Orlando legal professional who spearheaded the fight for Good Districts in Florida, was “the David who genuinely took down Goliath,” his son Chris King explained Monday.

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David King, 79, of Winter Park, died Friday of cancer at Orlando Health Regional Professional medical Heart.

“He was a Southern gentleman of impeccable integrity, with a beating coronary heart for justice,” stated Chris King, just one of King’s three sons and the Democratic prospect for lieutenant governor in 2018. “He had more than 55 several years in the practice of regulation. … And he was a legal legend.”

Orlando attorney John Morgan known as David King “the law firm you termed when your complete globe was on the line. He was right out of central casting, apart from he was actual. He was the attorney we all aspired to be.”

A graduate of Tennessee Technological College and Vanderbilt University Legislation University, King served as a Marine in Vietnam right before relocating to his spouse Marilyn’s native Central Florida to follow law. He co-established the legislation agency of King, Blackwell, Zehnder & Wermuth in Orlando.

David and Marilyn King were being married for 56 a long time, “a really like story for the ages,” Chris King stated.

In 2014 and 2015, King was the guide lawyer for the League of Women Voters in the Truthful Districts scenario, which led to the redrawing of congressional and condition Senate districts statewide.

The Florida Supreme Court ruled GOP legislative leaders colluded with Republican operatives to attract districts to profit their get together. State Senate leaders admitted they violated the constitution in the redistricting method.

“When you have so a lot of coincidences that all go in the very same direction— to make the map helpful for Republicans — it strains trustworthiness,” King explained at the time.

The League’s victory in that scenario led to the closely gerrymandered districts getting redrawn by the courts.

District 7 in Seminole County, which notably did not involve Black neighborhoods in Sanford, was ultimately gained by Democratic U.S. Rep. Stephanie Murphy in 2016 following redistricting to incorporate these parts as perfectly as parts of Orange County.

U.S. Rep. Val Demings also gained in District 10 that bundled both of those Black neighborhoods west of downtown Orlando and downtown itself, beforehand attached to a Lake County-centered district.

“I imagine a lot less about the philosophical variations or authorized variations and a lot more about the men and women that have been presented the chance to serve,” Chris King explained, “that usually, even even though they ended up superb people today, would not have had the districts to run in. And which is why it is so significant.”

Linda Chapin, a previous Orange County mayor and near close friend of the family, mentioned King “was keen to just take on causes that other individuals would be reluctant about since he believed that fantastic authorities was significant in genuine people’s lives. … He was prepared to provide his significant talent to that induce and succeeded the place other individuals did not.”

Chris King explained he was optimistic that a state Supreme Courtroom now with a conservative majority would still uphold Good Districts.

But if not, he claimed, “my father gave us the roadmap to ideal injustice. And other people will have to have the baton.”

A socially distanced “celebration of life” will be held at Very first Presbyterian Church of Orlando on Tuesday, Dec. 29 at 11 a.m., and will also be streamed on the web at www.FPCO.org/funeral.

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