Early life and education

Born in Shawnee, Oklahoma

Shawnee, Oklahoma

Shawnee is a city in Pottawatomie County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 29,857 at the 2010 census. The city is part of the Oklahoma City-Shawnee Combined Statistical Area; it is also the county seat of Pottawatomie County and the principal city of the Shawnee Micropolitan Statistical...

, Seay received a B.A.

Bachelor of Arts

A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...

 from the University of Oklahoma

University of Oklahoma

The University of Oklahoma is a coeducational public research university located in Norman, Oklahoma. Founded in 1890, it existed in Oklahoma Territory near Indian Territory for 17 years before the two became the state of Oklahoma. the university had 29,931 students enrolled, most located at its...

 in 1961 and an LL.B. from the University of Oklahoma College of Law

University of Oklahoma College of Law

The University of Oklahoma College of Law is an ABA-certified law school located on the University of Oklahoma campus in Norman, Oklahoma. Currently, the College of Law has an enrollment of 527 law students....

 in 1963.

Career

Seay was in private practice in Seminole, Oklahoma

Seminole, Oklahoma

Seminole is a city in Seminole County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 6,899 at the 2000 census. Seminole experienced a large population growth in the 1920s due to an oil boom...

 from 1963 to 1966. He was a County attorney of Seminole County, Oklahoma from 1963 to 1966. He was a First assistant district attorney of 22nd Judicial District, Oklahoma from 1967 to 1968.

Judicial service

Seay was an Associate judge, District Court of Oklahoma, Seminole County, Oklahoma from 1968 to 1974. He was a judge on the 22nd Judicial District Court, Oklahoma from 1974 to 1979.

Seay was a federal judge on the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Oklahoma

United States District Court for the Eastern District of Oklahoma

The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Oklahoma is the Federal district court whose jurisdiction comprises the following counties: Adair, Atoka, Bryan, Carter, Cherokee, Choctaw, Coal, Haskell, Hughes, Johnston, Latimer, Le Flore, Love, Marshall, McCurtain, McIntosh, Murray,...

. Seay was nominated by President Jimmy Carter

Jimmy Carter

James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. is an American politician who served as the 39th President of the United States and was the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, the only U.S. President to have received the Prize after leaving office...

 on September 28, 1979, to a seat vacated by Joseph W. Morris

Joseph W. Morris

Joseph Watkins Morris was a U.S. Representative from Kentucky.Born in Sulphur, Kentucky, Morris moved to New Castle, Kentucky, with his father in 1889....

. He was confirmed by the United States Senate

United States Senate

The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...

 on October 31, 1979, and received his commission on November 2, 1979. He served as chief judge from 1980-1996. He assumed senior status

Senior status

Senior status is a form of semi-retirement for United States federal judges, and judges in some state court systems. After federal judges have reached a certain combination of age and years of service on the federal courts, they are allowed to assume senior status...

 on September 25, 2003.

Ada affair

Judge Seay was instrumental in reversing the misscarriages of justice that led to the convictions of Ronald Keith Williamson and Dennis Fritz

Dennis Fritz

Dennis Fritz and Ron Williamson were wrongly convicted of the murder of Ada, Oklahoma resident Debra Carter. Fritz was given a life sentence, while Williamson was sentenced to death in 1988. Fritz and Williamson were the subjects of a non-fiction book, The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a...

 for the murder of Debbie Carter in Ada

Ada, Oklahoma

Ada is a city in and the county seat of Pontotoc County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 16,008 at the 2000 census. As of 2009, the city population was estimated at 17,019....

 Pontotoc County, Oklahoma

Pontotoc County, Oklahoma

Pontotoc County is a county located in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. As of 2000, the population was 35,143. Its county seat is Ada.-Geography:According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 1,879 km²...

, events that were documented in John Grisham's

John Grisham

John Ray Grisham, Jr. is an American lawyer and author, best known for his popular legal thrillers.John Grisham graduated from Mississippi State University before attending the University of Mississippi School of Law in 1981 and practiced criminal law for about a decade...

 non-fiction book The Innocent Man

The Innocent Man

The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a Small Town is a nonfiction book written by John Grisham, and his first outside the legal fiction genre. He tells the story of Ronald 'Ron' Keith Williamson of Ada, Oklahoma, a former minor league baseball player who was convicted in 1988 of the rape and...

. He is quoted as attaching to an epilogue of his legal opinion: "God help us, if ever in this great country we turn our heads while people who have not had fair trials are executed. That almost happened in this case".

Personal

Seay's paternal grandfather was a full-blooded Native American

Native Americans in the United States

Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...

. Seay did not discover his Native American heritage, likely Cherokee

Cherokee

The Cherokee are a Native American people historically settled in the Southeastern United States . Linguistically, they are part of the Iroquoian language family...

, until after he was appointed to the federal bench.

External links