When Judge Stuart Albright started instructing a Forsyth County jury that may soon decide whether accused killer James Ray Little III lives or dies, it was difficult not to think about his father, retired Judge Douglas Albright of Guilford Superior Court.
The younger Albright is a big man -- he played football for Duke in the late 1980s -- who is polished, polite and professional. He has a deep voice that commands respect.
One floor up from where the younger Albright was presiding Friday sat the senior Judge Albright, who was serving as a substitute for the week.
He has slowed some, but Douglas Albright remains an imposing figure who leaves no doubt who's in charge of the courtroom and an unapologetic, old-school judge quick to dress down a convicted criminal with fire-and-brimstone oratory.
Having father and son judges in the same building on the same day created a slight ripple in the tight courthouse community and started a few discussions about how times change.
"Things have changed," Albright said. "I tell the newer judges not to cackle in the nest. In this day and age, it's probably wise to just do what's required and leave it at that."
Defense attorneys' Albright stories
Longtime defense attorneys all seem to have stories about Douglas Albright. One remembers being admonished for talking to a police officer during downtime. Another said that lawyers knew Albright "would hammer our clients at sentencing" but also that his integrity was unimpeachable.
I remember the judge for a different reason; he presided over the first murder trial I ever covered in 1990.
A mope from Reidsville named Mark Tyron Soyars had been charged with killing Nan Doyle, a card-store owner from Eden, after robbing her, then dumping her body in summer 1989. Like James Little, Soyars was being tried for his life.
The Rockingham County jury incredibly decided to spare Soyars' life. After hearing the decision, Judge Douglas Albright stared down at Soyars and told him that if he believed in God, he should get down on his knees in his cell and gives thanks that it wasn't in Albright's power to impose the harsher sentence.
"You are the luckiest man on Earth, for you who showed no mercy in taking life has been shown mercy," Albright said on April 27, 1990.
Though it's impossible to say since Soyars was facing the judge, it appeared from the back that he was trembling.
"I remember that day," Albright said Friday during a recess. "That was a bad case. A horrendous crime."
Asked if he thought his son might follow in the father's oratorical shoes, Albright smiled before answering.
"I try not to give Stuart advice," he said. "He's more in tune with the modern trend to be low key."
Albright judgeship dynasty
The Albrights are about as close to a dynasty as you're going to find these days.
The father served as the district attorney for Guilford County before being elected to the bench in 1974. The son also served as the elected DA in Guilford County before Gov. Mike Easley appointed him to fill the seat his father vacated in 2005.
That move caused some low-level grumbling about political favoritism and nepotism, but for the most part it died away after he won election in his own right in 2006.
"Stuart's a good lawyer," Douglas Albright said. "He had right much civil experience, and he was the elected district attorney over there. He didn't need any help from me."
As for their respective styles, it's fair to say that while Douglas Albright's ways are well known, Stuart Albright's are still evolving. The father has not seen the son at work, though he would like to if he could.
"He doesn't need me looking like I'm grading his papers," Albright said. "I will say that there's nothing wrong with an old judge being very, very proud of his son."
Times have changed, and we might be seeing the last of the old-time judges unafraid to speak their minds. Justice may be blind, but she certainly was never bland.
■ Scott Sexton can be reached at 727-7481 or at ssexton@wsjournal.com<.
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