Watergate lawyer,
gay activist dies at 65

Samuel Alexander Garrison III, who defended President Richard Nixon in impeachment hearings in 1974 and later became a gay rights activist, died Sunday in Roanoke, Va. He was 65.

Garrison died after a long battle with leukemia, said Mark Harris, his partner of 17 years.

Garrison served as the deputy minority counsel for the House Judiciary Committee and later also was the chief Republican counsel.

Following Watergate, Garrison returned to Roanoke to practice law. He was disbarred and served four months in prison for embezzling $46,000 from a bankruptcy account in 1980. The Virginia Supreme Court reinstated his law license in 1993.

The Roanoke native was not only a major force in the LGBT movement but also advocated for all civil rights, Harris said.

Garrison earned bachelor's and law degrees from the University of Virginia and was the chief assistant commonwealth's attorney in Roanoke from 1966 to 1969. He was elected as the city's top prosecutor in 1970. (AP)