Arlene Violet
Arlene Violet (born 1943) was a nun in the Sisters of Mercy religious order.[1] She left the order to run successfully for Rhode Island Attorney General in 1984. This was the first time the position of Attorney General in any state had been held by a woman.[2] [3] She was defeated for re-election in 1986 by Democrat James O'Neill.
Biography
Arlene Violet was born into a middle class Republican voting[1] family in Providence, Rhode Island. After attending Providence College, she entered Sisters of Mercy convent in 1961, taking her final vows in 1969. Violet later earned a bachelor’s degree from Salve Regina University and was a school teacher in a disadvantaged neighborhood in the early 1970s. Becoming interested in law, she enrolled at Boston College, graduating in 1974. During her schooling, she clerked in the judge’s chambers and did an internship in the Rhode Island Attorney General’s Office. Due to financial difficulties at the convent, she left her legal work and returned to the convent, serving as an administrative nun through the early 1980s.[2]
In 1982 she made an unsuccessful attempt to be elected for the Attorney General, but when she ran again in 1984, Violet won the election, becoming the first female attorney general in the United States.[2] During her time in office she focused on organized crime, environmental issues, and victim’s rights. One of her innovations was to use videotape interviews of child victims rather than direct testimony.[4] She also won recognition for reopening the Von Bülow case.[5] She lost her reelection bid in 1986 and her term ended.[6]
After leaving office, Violet returned to prosecuting, taught environmental law at Brown University, ran a talk show on WHJJ Radio from 1990 to 2006, and writes a weekly political column. She has written two books Convictions: My Journey from the Convent to the Courtroom (1988), an autobiography, and Me and the Mob (2010) a book about the witness protection program. She also drafted a manual on search seizure law.[4] She was inducted into the Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame in 1996.[7]
She wrote a musical, The Family, A Musical Drama About the Mob, with composer and lyricist,Enrico Garzilli, which premiered by special arrangement with Trinity Repertory Company in Providence,RI in June 2011.
Notes and references
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Weatherford 2012, p. 76.
- ↑ Rutgers, Center for American Women And Politics (accessed 5/23/2007)
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Weatherford 2012, p. 77.
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- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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Bibliography
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