Judge Carl Fox, cancer survivor, to retire after long career on the Orange-Chatham bench
Carl Fox, the longtime Superior Court judge who beat cancer after inspiring hundreds to join the bone-marrow donor registry, will retire at the end of September.
Fox, 66, became the first Black judge in his Orange-Chatham county district when then-Gov. Mike Easley appointed him in 2005.
Before joining the bench, Fox served more than 20 years as district attorney, once prosecuting more than half a dozen murder cases in a nine-month stretch. But as judge, he presided over dozens of high-profile cases across the Triangle involving former U.S. Sen. John Edwards and the Moral Monday protesters.
In 2017, trial lawyers’ group Advocates for Justice named Fox outstanding trial judge of the year.
“I never understood shows like ‘Seinfeld’ that left at the height of their popularity,” Fox said Wednesday. “Until I thought about it. If you go on too long, people lose interest in the show.”
Fox’s battle with cancer
A graduate of UNC-Chapel Hill and its law school, Fox gained the most attention for his cancer battle in 2015. After noticing a persistent spot on his leg, he sought doctors’ aid and found he had myelodysplastic syndrome, which affects the bone marrow’s ability to make healthy blood cells.
At one point, his weight dropped to 128 pounds, he said, and a doctor asked his wife if she wanted a priest to administer last rites.
But the community rallied under the “Save the Fox” campaign, seeking bone marrow donors that could be a potentially match with Fox. At one point in 2015, the UNC football team had more than 70 players and staff get cheek swabs after practice.
Charles Alston, a prison inmate Fox had sentenced to 25 years for robbery, offered to donate bone marrow.
“We’re both Virgos,” Alston told the N&O.
The Triangle’s Delete Blood Cancer led drives until Fox received two stem cell donations and returned to the bench to an ovation in 2016.
“I think there’s no one in the world who deserved a miracle more than Carl Fox,” Orange-Chatham District Attorney Jim Woodall said at the time, according to the Associated Press.
‘Stand up to public scrutiny’
As he steps down, Fox said he leaves behind a “rogue’s gallery” of defendants he prosecuted. He recalled Maxwell Avery Wright, who had kidnapped and murdered UNC-Chapel Hill student Sharon Stewart and dumped her body in a barrel.
As district attorney, he agreed not to seek the death penalty if Wright would show them where to find Stewart, and he kept the promise, generating controversy but still winning re-election.
“Sometimes,” he said, “you have to be willing to stand up to public scrutiny and public outrage.”
He drew controversy multiple times in his long career. Once, he banned a racy rap album by 2 Live Crew throughout Orange County, then reversed himself.
But he had a reputation for ruling with flair.
In 2014, during the Moral Monday protests, he ruled the Legislature’s rules for creating a disturbance within the halls of government were too broad.
“I’ve been in that building,” he said at the time, “and groups of school children are some of the loudest. Why do we give a rat’s behind about whether or not somebody else can hear their conversation?”
Fox notes that he had seven elections as a district attorney and judge, and only two were uncontested. He thanks voters, constituents and the wide support he found.
“It’s not my courtroom,” he said. “I just hold the job as a trustee of truth.”
This story was originally published August 27, 2020 at 1:35 PM with the headline "Judge Carl Fox, cancer survivor, to retire after long career on the Orange-Chatham bench."