Judge Stephen Yekel, 74, was found dead on Tuesday in his own courtroom

Summary

Judge Stephen Yekel, 74, died by suicide in his courtroom on his last day in office after losing a re-election bid.

He was found Tuesday morning at Effingham County State Courthouse, with investigators believing the incident occurred late Monday or early Tuesday.

Yekel, appointed in 2022, had recently attempted to resign but was denied by Governor Brian Kemp.

He was also facing a wrongful termination lawsuit from a former court employee.

  • Flying Squid
    -9•5 days ago

    Yes, being on the internet totally excuses a lack of empathy and a tacit approval of suicide during a time of year where depression is at a height. Because there’s nothing someone on the edge needs more right now than to see a bunch of people mocking someone who just died, confirming to them how worthless human life is and how no one will miss them either. Ask me how I know this, go ahead.

    Editing this into all of my posts: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_suicide_crisis_lines

    • @[email protected]
      4•5 days ago

      Yeah, I remember back in the day, when the internet was free. It was lawless, but there were so many great things to see too.

      Then a bunch of pussies noticed all the fun we were having, and they gave away all that freedom to the governments and corpos, asking them to build in blocking features and filtering horseshit, so that they didn’t accidentally see an image or idea that they didn’t already have predefined in their head.

      Just completely destroyed something that was once so beautifully free, just because they were too much an imbecile and coward to face different ideas.

      Sad really.