Texas History Minute

eleven German civilians murdered six American prisoners whose plane had been shot down nearby Jaworski passionately argued that in spite of whatever orders the Nazis gave or however they incited the population, each individual was responsible for his own actions and must answer for those actions Ten of the eleven defendants were convicted

After the war, Jaworski returned to Houston He served on numerous civic boards In 1960, he was elected president of the Houston Chamber of Commerce In 1961 and 1962, he was president of the American College of Trial Lawyers He then served as president of the Texas Bar Association for the 1962-1963 term Starting in late 1963, President Lyndon Johnson appointed him to several presidential commissions to study such issues as violent crime and investment law In 1971, fellow lawyers honored Jaworski by electing him president of the American Bar Association

In the meantime, President Richard Nixon had embroiled himself in a scandal during his 1972 re-election campaign Nixon had ordered his employees to break into private offices to steal information or plant wiretaps and paid their silence with a secret slush fund of corporate donations The most notorious break-in was the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate office complex While Jaworski had become a respected member of the legal community, the Watergate scandal would make him a household name

In May 1973, former Solicitor General Archibald Cox was named special prosecutor to investigate the case Nixon grew increasingly paranoid as Cox moved closer to the evidence, zeroing in on conversations that Nixon had taped in the Oval Office Nixon aides admitted these tapes existed, and Cox demanded they be submitted as evidence Nixon refused On October 20, 1973, Nixon fired Cox in what became known as the “Saturday Night Massacre,” where which Nixon also forced the resignations of the attorney general and the assistant attorney general in order to dismiss Cox

Reluctantly, Nixon appointed a new special prosecutor, tapping Jaworski Though Jaworski had been a Democrat, he had voted for Nixon in 1968 and 1972 Jaworski had not worked as a prosecutor in decades, he gave the appointment his full effort and left no legal stone unturned

Jaworski quickly demanded that Nixon hand over the tapes Nixon insisted that the tapes were privileged while Jaworski insisted that Nixon could not impede a criminal investigation Jaworski took the case to the Supreme Court in July 1974, arguing that Nixon must cooperate The Supreme Court agreed unanimously, and ordered Nixon to hand over the tapes As it turned out, the tapes ultimately showed Nixon plotting to obstruct a criminal investigation and became his political downfall He resigned in disgrace on August 9 In the end, Jaworski showed that everyone is subject to the law

He wrote several books on his experiences In 1961, he published Fifteen Years After, detailing his work with the war crimes trials In 1976, he wrote The Right and The Power, reflecting on his Watergate experiences His work ensured that honor and justice would remain at the heart of American law Jaworski died at his ranch just outside Austin in December 1982