The newly opened (dedicated October 27, 2011) RSA Dexter Avenue Building was built over and around the old State of Alabama Judicial Building. The new facility includes an honor court with statues of the Alabama Supreme Court chief justices who served in the old building. One of the staues is of Howell Thomas Heflin (June 19, 1921 – March 29, 2005), who served as Chief Justice from 1971 to 1977. He later served as a United States Senator (1979 - 1997).
The bronze statue is life-size. Justice Heflin is shown standing in his judicial robes, as are the other justices. His hands are folded in front of his body as he holds a copy of a book titled "Code of Alabama." Next to the statue is a bronze plaque giving biographical information.
The following biographical information comes from the Encyclopedia of Alabama web page and tells the story of his life through his time as Chief Justice: (
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Howell Thomas Heflin (1921-2005) was an attorney and elected official who served as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Alabama from 1971 to 1977 and as a U.S. senator from Alabama from 1979 to 1997. A lifelong Democrat, Heflin was the cousin of noted Alabama educator and reformer Julia Strudwick Tutwiler and the nephew of J. Thomas "Cotton Tom" Heflin, an outspoken segregationist and anti-Catholic who represented Alabama in the U.S. Senate in the 1920s and 1930s. Heflin himself was known for employing minority staff members and for his strong civil rights record in the Senate.
Heflin was born June 19, 1921, to Marvin Heflin, a Methodist minister, and Louise Strudwick Heflin, a former teacher, in Poulan, Georgia, just east of Albany. Heflin grew up in rural Georgia and Alabama, his family often relocating to accommodate his father's ministerial postings. He graduated from Colbert County High School in Leighton, and enrolled at Birmingham-Southern College in 1938, majoring in history and political science and graduating in 1942. A first lieutenant in the United States Marine Corps from 1942 to 1946 during World War II, Heflin participated in the Bougainville and Guam invasions and was awarded the Silver Star and two Purple Hearts.
After the war, Heflin taught political science at the University of Alabama, while also earning a degree from its law school in 1948. While in law school, Heflin met Elizabeth Ann Carmichael, whom he married in 1952. After his graduation, Heflin moved to Tuscumbia and during the next two decades ran a successful law practice. During these years, he was active in statewide legal circles—including a term as Alabama State Bar President from 1965 to 1966—and also in the Tuscumbia community. In 1969, Governor Albert Brewer appointed Heflin to the Alabama Ethics Commission.
Heflin was active in political campaigns but never ran for public office himself until 1970, when he sought the Democratic nomination for Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Alabama. Heflin won the primary, despite being a first-time candidate and being opposed by former Alabama Attorney General and Governor John Patterson, and easily won the general election. As Chief Justice, Heflin authored notable opinions on the power of the judiciary, workers' rights, criminal procedure, and women's rights. He also won national acclaim for his successful championing of the Judicial Article of 1973, which modernized and streamlined Alabama's fragmented, corrupt, and inefficient judicial system. The Judicial Article created the Unified Judicial System and implemented many other reforms, including requirements that trial and appellate judges be licensed attorneys, that the legislature fund the judicial system, and that stronger standards of judicial professionalism be implemented. Heflin's successful reform effort was the first—and, to date, only—major substantial revision to the Alabama Constitution of 1901.
Heflin decided not to seek reelection as Chief Justice, leaving office in early 1977 to resume his Tuscumbia law practice.