Walter Morris
About Judge Walter Morris
Judge Morris is a graduate of Mount St. Mary’s University, Emmitsburg, MD (B.S.); the University of Connecticut School of Law (J.D.); and the John F. Kennedy School of Government’s Program for Senior Executives in State and Local Government at Harvard University.
A retired Vermont Superior Court Judge with over 26 years of service on the bench, Judge Morris continues to preside in criminal and juvenile cases, and occasionally sits as a substitute Justice on the Vermont Supreme Court. Prior to his judicial appointment by Governor Madeleine Kunin in 1990, he spent fourteen years practicing law. The last three years of his career as a lawyer was spent in service as Vermont’s Defender General (Chief Public Defender). As Defender General, he had responsibility for provision of lawyers for people charged with crime, and in juvenile abuse, neglect and delinquency cases, who could not afford to hire a lawyer.
Judge Morris has a special interest in teaching the law. He has served as a member of the faculties of the National Judicial College at the University of Nevada-Reno, and the Institute for Excellence in Judicial Education at the University of Memphis, and has conducted numerous educational programs and seminars for judges, lawyers, and law enforcement personnel, as well as for guardians ad litem and child protection workers in child abuse and neglect cases. His particular areas of focus and teaching have been criminal procedure and constitutional fair trial rights; the rights of juveniles in delinquency cases; and unique issues in determining juvenile competency to stand trial in serious cases.