Robert Morgenthau, longest-serving Manhattan DA, dies at 99

Former Manhattan District Attorney Robert M. Morgenthau, who spent more than three decades jailing criminals from mob kingpins and drug-dealing killers to a tax-dodging Harvard dean, died Sunday. He was 99, just 10 days short of his 100th birthday.

Morgenthau died at Manhattan's Lenox Hill Hospital after a short illness, his wife Lucinda Franks told The New York Times.

Morgenthau, who served as U.S. Attorney for New York's southern district during the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, returned to law enforcement as Manhattan's top state prosecutor in 1974 and didn't leave for 35 years, with his office handling around 100,000 criminal cases yearly.

FILE - In this Dec. 16, 2009 file photo, Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau listens during an interview at his office in New York, as he prepares to step down after 35 years as DA. Morgenthau, the longest-serving former Manhattan district attorney who tried mob kingpins, music stars and white-collar criminals and inspired a character on 'Law & Order' has died. He was 99. His wife, Lucinda Franks, told The New York Times that Morgenthau died Sunday, July 21, 2019, at a Manhattan hospital after a short illness. AP PhotoBebeto Matthews, File)

In 2005, at age 86, Morgenthau was elected for the eighth and last time, turning back a challenge from Leslie Crocker Snyder, a popular former state judge. Snyder tried without success to turn Morgenthau's age and lengthy tenure into campaign issues.

Morgenthau left office in 2009, throwing his support to his eventual successor, Cy Vance.

At the time, he told The Associated Press he was retiring because "I looked at my birth certificate, and I said, 'It's about time.'"

FILE - In this April 26, 2010 file photo, former New York City District Attorney Robert Morgenthau attends a gala launch party in New York. Morgenthau, the longest-serving former Manhattan district attorney who tried mob kingpins, music stars and white-collar criminals and inspired a character on 'Law & Order' has died. He was 99. His wife, Lucinda Franks, told The New York Times that Morgenthau died Sunday, July 21, 2019, at a Manhattan hospital after a short illness. (AP PhotoStephen Chernin, File)

In his position at the forefront of Manhattan's legal and political scene, Morgenthau cultivated a dignified, above-the-fray presence, and was widely acknowledged by allies and foes alike as effective, nonpartisan and incorruptible.

From that emerged a national reputation that extended beyond the courthouse. Tall and distinguished in appearance, he was the model for the avuncular character of prosecutor Adam Schiff, played by actor Steven Hill on the long-running television series, "Law & Order."

Show creator Dick Wolf called Morgenthau "the greatest district attorney in the history of New York."

Under Morgenthau's watch, Manhattan prosecutors took on many high-profile cases: political payoffs by mob boss Anthony "Tony Ducks" Corallo, the shooting of four black youths by white subway gunman Bernhard Goetz, the weapons-possession arrest of hip-hop mogul Sean "Diddy" Combs.

Over the years, Morgenthau's office also prosecuted mob boss John Gotti, acquitted on state charges of ordering a hit on a union official, and former Tyco CEO L. Dennis Kozlowski, convicted of fraud and larceny in a case seen as an emblem of corporate excess. The office also produced guilty pleas from "Preppie Killer" Robert Chambers Jr. and John Lennon's killer, Mark David Chapman.

Morgenthau, who had claimed a 97% conviction rate while U.S. attorney, lost the Combs case, but in the late 1990s, his state DA's office was winning guilty verdicts in three of four cases.

However, Morgenthau insisted that convictions weren't everything.

"The prosecutor's job is to protect the public and to administer the laws," Morgenthau once said, deriding district attorneys who collected convictions like "notches on a gun."

That premise was put to the test in the Central Park jogger case, one of the most sensational prosecutions handled by his office. Thirteen years after a female jogger was attacked in the infamous gang "wilding" spree, Morgenthau asked a judge in 2002 to throw out the convictions of five men because DNA evidence and another man's confession put them into question.

Morgenthau was born into a wealthy, prominent New York family. His grandfather, Henry Morgenthau Sr., was U.S. ambassador to Turkey during World War I, and his father, Henry Morgenthau Jr., was secretary of the treasury under President Franklin D. Roosevelt, a family friend.

His childhood reflected his lineage. Morgenthau had a lifelong friendship with members of the Kennedy clan; he once cooked hot dogs with Eleanor Roosevelt for Great Britain's King George VI; on another occasion he prepared a mint julep for Winston Churchill.

He joined the U.S. Navy one day after graduating Amherst College in 1941 and spent 4 ½ years in the service during World War II, earning the rank of lieutenant commander while seeing action aboard destroyers in the Mediterranean and the Pacific.

After the war, Morgenthau earned a law degree from Yale and joined a New York law firm headed by former U.S. secretary of war Robert P. Patterson.

In 1960, Morgenthau campaigned in New York for his friend and fellow Democrat, John F. Kennedy. The next year, the new president named him to the prestigious post of U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, the nation's busiest such office.

Morgenthau resigned after 17 months to run for governor against incumbent Republican Nelson Rockefeller. After his defeat in a disastrous campaign in 1962, Morgenthau was reappointed federal prosecutor by Kennedy.

Morgenthau developed a reputation for targeting white-collar criminals. In 1963, his office successfully prosecuted former Harvard law school dean James M. Landis for tax evasion. More than 40 years later, as state district attorney he convicted Kozlowski and a subordinate for looting Tyco of $600 million.

Morgenthau was forced out as federal prosecutor in January 1970 by President Richard M. Nixon after months of resisting political pressure to resign. He briefly joined Mayor John Lindsay's administration as a deputy mayor, then waged another losing gubernatorial race before leaving the public eye for the next four years, engaged in private law practice.

In 1974, Manhattan District Attorney Frank Hogan resigned due to health problems after 32 years on the job. Morgenthau then launched his first successful run for public office.

Over the next quarter-century, Morgenthau was elected another seven times as head of one of the nation's largest law offices, with 550 prosecutors and 700 other staffers. Among prominent figures who served in the office was the late John F. Kennedy Jr., U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor and Snyder, who ran against him in 2005.

Snyder mounted a vigorous campaign in which she pointed out that "Law & Order" had three district attorneys in 17 years on the air whereas Morgenthau had served alone for 30. The New York Times agreed that "three decades is more than enough time for any executive to accomplish his or her mission," but that endorsement did not help Snyder overcome his advantage at the polls.

In addition to jailing Goetz in the 1984 wounding of four black youths who tried to rob him on a subway train, Morgenthau's notable convictions included a crack dealer who murdered the son of AOL Time-Warner head Gerald Levin; the murderous mother-and-son grifter team, Sante and Kenneth Kimes Jr.; and seven youths who killed a Utah tourist in a subway mugging in 1990.

His civic work included a relationship with the Police Athletic League that dates to 1962, and his position as chairman of the Museum of Jewish Heritage, which opened in 1997.

He collected a variety of awards and honors, including the Citation of Merit from Yale Law School and the Thomas Jefferson Award in Law from the University of Virginia.

Morgenthau was survived by his wife, Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Lucinda Franks, and seven children. His first wife, the former Martha Pattridge, died of cancer in 1972.

Former Associated Press writer Larry McShane contributed to this report.

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Russia on Wednesday vetoed a U.N. resolution sponsored by the United States and Japan calling on all nations to prevent a dangerous nuclear arms race in outer space.

The vote in the 15-member Security Council was 13 in favor, Russia opposed and China abstaining.

The resolution calls on all countries not to develop or deploy nuclear arms or other weapons of mass destruction in space, as banned under a 1967 international treaty that included the U.S. and Russia, and to agree to the need to verify compliance.

U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said after the vote that Russian President Vladimir Putin has said Moscow has no intention of deploying nuclear weapons in space, but that the country's veto raises the question of what the government may be hiding.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. Security Council is set to vote Wednesday on a resolution sponsored by the United States and Japan calling on all nations to prevent a dangerous nuclear arms race in outer space. It is likely to be vetoed by Russia.

The resolution calls on all countries not to develop or deploy weapons of mass destruction, like nuclear arms, in space.

U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield told a council meeting on March 18 where she announced the resolution that “any placement of nuclear weapons into orbit around the Earth would be unprecedented, dangerous and unacceptable.”

Russia’s deputy U.N. ambassador, Dmitry Polyansky, retorted that Moscow’s initial impression was that the resolution is “yet another propaganda stunt by Washington” and is “very politicized” and “divorced from reality.”

The announcement of the resolution followed White House confirmation in February that Russia has obtained a “troubling” anti-satellite weapon capability, although such a weapon is not operational yet.

Russian President Vladimir Putin declared later that Moscow has no intention of deploying nuclear weapons in space, claiming that the country has only developed space capabilities similar to those of the United States.

The draft resolution says “the prevention of an arms race in outer space would avert a grave danger for international peace and security.”

It urges all countries carrying out activities in exploring and using outer space to comply with international law and the U.N. Charter.

The draft “affirms” that countries that ratified the 1967 Outer Space Treaty must comply with their obligations not to put in orbit around the Earth “any objects” with weapons of mass destruction, or install them “on celestial bodies, or station such weapons in outer space.”

The treaty, ratified by some 114 countries including the United States and Russia, prohibits the deployment of “nuclear weapons or any other kinds of weapons of mass destruction” in orbit or the stationing of “weapons in outer space in any other manner.”

The draft resolution emphasizes “the necessity of further measures, including political commitments and legally binding instruments, with appropriate and effective provisions for verification, to prevent an arms race in outer space in all its aspects.”

It reiterates that the U.N. Conference on Disarmament, based in Geneva, has the primary responsibility to negotiate agreements on preventing an arms race in outer space.

The 65-nation body has achieved few results and has largely devolved into a venue for countries to voice criticism of others’ weapons programs or defend their own. The draft resolution urges the conference “to adopt and implement a balanced and comprehensive program of work.”

At the March council meeting where the U.S.-Japan initiative was launched, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres warned that “geopolitical tensions and mistrust have escalated the risk of nuclear warfare to its highest point in decades.”

He said the movie “Oppenheimer” about Robert Oppenheimer, who directed the U.S. project during World War II that developed the atomic bomb, “brought the harsh reality of nuclear doomsday to vivid life for millions around the world.”

“Humanity cannot survive a sequel to Oppenheimer,” the U.N. chief said.

FILE - U.S. Ambassador to United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield speaks on Thursday, April 18, 2024, in Tokyo. The U.N. Security Council is set to vote Wednesday, April 24, 2024, on a resolution announced by Thomas-Greenfield, calling on all nations to prevent a dangerous nuclear arms race in outer space. It is likely to be vetoed by Russia. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko, Pool, File)