From Deseret News archives:
D. Frank Wilkins, former justice, dies
Justice Wilkins was also in private practice at various stages in his career, worked as a prosecutor and served as a 3rd District Court judge.
He also was Democratic state chairman, served on the Utah Public Service Commission and was a Utah State Bar commissioner.
Justice Wilkins was with the law firm of Berman & Savage until his death. The Utah State Bar recently named him Distinguished Lawyer of the Year.
Justice Wilkins was a Tooele native, a graduate of West High School and the University of Utah. He received his law degree from George Washington University.
Justice Wilkins wrote the Utah Supreme Court's majority opinion that upheld the death penalty for Pierre Selby, one of the so-called Hi-Fi murderers who was executed in 1987 for killing three people during a robbery at an Ogden music store.
Justice Wilkins, at a different stage of his career, also was appointed as co-counsel with now-Salt Lake County District Attorney David Yocom to defend avowed racist Joseph Paul Franklin. Franklin shot two black men to death in 1980 while they were jogging with two white women near Liberty Park.
In 1974, Justice Wilkins presided over the trial of a man who was acquitted by a jury of fatally shooting a Salt Lake County Sheriff's deputy following a domestic-disturbance call. Justice Wilkins recalled there was a huge outcry after the verdict and he was inundated with angry questions from the public and even death threats.
Funeral services will be at noon Friday, Jan. 6, at Larkin Mortuary, 260 E. South Temple. Friends may call at the mortuary one hour before the funeral.
