Harry Whittington

Harry M. Whittington (born March 3, 1927) is an American lawyer, real estate investor, and political figure from Austin, Texas who received international media attention on February 11, 2006, when he was shot in the face by Vice President Dick Cheney while hunting quail with two women on a ranch in Kenedy County, Texas, near Corpus Christi. [" [http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/0216061cheney1.html Texas Cops Release Cheney Shooting Report] ," "The Smoking Gun"]

Biography

Whittington was born in Henderson, Texas on March 3, 1927. He received his law degree from the University of Texas at Austin and began practicing law in Austin in 1950. Whittington was a member of the Texas Beta chapter of Phi Delta Theta. The same year, he married Mercedes Baker and they now have four daughters and six grandchildren. In 2006, a reporter for the "Austin American-Statesman" referred to him as "very rich, very stubborn and very patient." He has also been active in Texas state politics.

Government service

Over the years, he has been appointed to several committees and commissions, including the Office of Patent Protection Executive Committee (a committee formed by the governor of Texas to ensure the rights of patent holders), the Texas Public Finance Authority Board, and the Texas Department of Corrections. He is also the current chairman of the Texas Funeral Service Commission, a position he was appointed to by then-Texas Governor George W. Bush. In the 1980s, as an appointee of Gov. Bill Clements, he was instrumental in bringing about reforms necessary for Texas to comply with a federal court order that found the state's treatment of its prisoners unconstitutional. [http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/13/politics/13cheney.html?hp&ex=1139893200&en=ef5d2efe3efde24c&ei=5094&partner=homepage] . Whittington is outspoken about his doubts about the death penalty as it is applied in Texas, especially in regard to defendants who are mentally retarded.

Land dispute

Whittington is a major land owner in Travis County, Texas, with property amounting to a reported $11 million. Beginning in 2000, Whittington has been fighting a legal case over the eminent domain seizure of a city block of his property in Austin. The city wants to use the land to build a parking garage. Although he has been successful so far in court (the Texas Supreme Court refused to consider the case, effectively ruling in his favor), the city went ahead and built the garage anyway. Depending on the final outcome of the trial, it is unclear what will become of the parking garage or if ownership of the land would revert to Whittington.

Hunting incident

On Saturday, February 11, 2006, at approximately 5:30 p.m., Whittington, a Bush-Cheney campaign contributor, was accidentally shot and injured by U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney during a quail hunting trip, at a ranch in south Texas owned by Katharine Armstrong. Most of the damage from the shotgun blast was to the right side of his body, including damage to his face, chest, and neck. He was taken to Corpus Christi Memorial Hospital by ambulance. The accident was not announced in the news media until the White House confirmed the incident to the Corpus Christi Caller-Times approximately 12 hours after the incident [http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1159016,00.html] .

Armstrong stated that Whittington was shot when Cheney was shooting at a covey of birds. She also says that Whittington did not alert Cheney to his location and was simply caught in the middle. The Kenedy County Sheriff's office has cleared Cheney of any criminal wrongdoing in the matter [http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/0213061cheney3.html] . Whittington said afterwards "My family and I are deeply sorry for all that Vice President Cheney and his family have had to go through this past week".

On February 14, hospital officials revealed that some of the lead birdshot lodged in Whittington's heart caused a minor heart attack [http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11340558/] .

Doctors do not plan to remove all the pellets from Whittington's body. They are not certain how many pellets are lodged in Whittington's body, but estimated there are "less than 150 or 200." [http://www.forbes.com/entrepreneurs/feeds/ap/2006/02/14/ap2526577.html] [http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/14/politics/14cnd-cheney.html]

Whittington was discharged from the hospital on February 17, 2006.

Pop culture references

The Positive Downside, a ska group from the Northeastern United States, always opens their shows with a song titled "Harry Whittington". [http://www.thepositivedownside.com/]

References

External links

* [http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/01/28harry.html "Lawyer wins another round in eminent domain case against the city" in the Austin American-Statesman, January 28, 2006]
* [http://www.austinchronicle.com/issues/dispatch/2001-10-05/pols_feature4.html "Last Rights" in the Austin Chronicle. October 5, 2001.]
* [http://www.bizjournals.com/austin/stories/2004/07/05/daily23.html "Whittington named committee head" in the Austin Business Journal. July 8, 2004.]
* [http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=1609790 "Cheney Accidentally Shoots Fellow Hunter", ABC News, February 12, 2006]
* [http://www.tfsc.state.tx.us/employeeListing.asp Texas Funeral Service Commission employee listing]
* [http://www.newsmeat.com/fec/bystate_detail.php?last=Whittington&first=Harry Harry Whittington's campaign contributions] at newsmeat.com