Judge Frank Caprio's death leaves mourners remembering his compassion that drew many online fans

People from all over the world lined up to pay tribute to Frank Caprio, a retired municipal judge who found online fame as an empathetic jurist and host of “ Caught in Providence,” at memorial services beginning Thursday in his home state of Rhode Island.

Caprio, who won hearts with the folksy humor and compassion he brought to his courtroom, had pancreatic cancer and died on Aug. 20 at 88.

His family said they had been moved by the outpouring of support since Caprio's passing and the “thousands of requests from people around the world" who wanted to pray with the family at Caprio's service.

Caprio's son, David Caprio, welcomed members of the public to attend his father's visitation on Thursday and his Friday funeral Mass at Providence’s Cathedral of Saints Peter & Paul, which will also be livestreamed on the former judge's social media pages. He said supporters of his father were traveling to Rhode Island from as far as the Philippines to attend his services.

“In some areas— or most areas— there’s some tension right now around the world, and people want to see that there is some humanity and there is some compassion and there is some kindness,” David Caprio said at his father’s visitation Thursday.

Caprio’s son said he hopes his father’s message and example live on after his death.

“He had a position of authority as a judge, and he used that authority not to punish people, or not to be harsh to people, but he used that authority to help people,” he said.

Caprio billed his courtroom as a place “where people and cases are met with kindness and compassion.” He was known for dismissing tickets or showing kindness even when he handed out justice. The show, produced by his brother, ran for more than two decades on local television until being nationally syndicated in 2018. Caprio retired from the bench in 2023.

Clips from the show have had more than 1 billion views on social media. His most popular videos have been those where he calls children to the bench to help pass judgment on their parents. One shows him listening sympathetically to a woman whose son was killed and then dismissing her tickets and fines of $400.

Providence resident Freida Adams, who waited in line to pay her respects to Caprio on Thursday, came before Caprio for in his courtroom for a parking ticket— an interaction she never forgot. She said he asked her for her story, and she told him about being a foster mother to 27 children over the years. He was moved.

“He had so much compassion and love. He said, ’You know what? Since you was a foster mother, you don’t have to pay it,' " she said. “That’s the kind of love that judge had for everyone and everybody. He had good morals and he loved everybody and he didn’t treat no one no different from he treated anyone.”

Adams said she cried when she learned Caprio died.

“If more judges was like him, it would be a better world today because he was a fair judge, he's a just judge, he’s a caring judge and he’s a true man of God,” she said. “I wouldn’t have missed this for the world because that’s how much respect I have for the judge."

Riccardo Giannini flew in for Caprio’s services from France, where he said Caprio’s death had been all over the news.

"It’s amazing – the simplicity, the kindness, and how far that goes,” he said.

According to his biography, Caprio came from humble beginnings, the second of three boys in an Italian immigrant family in the Federal Hill neighborhood of Providence, Rhode Island. He said he learned compassion from his father, who would wake Caprio and his brother up at four in the morning to accompany him on his route delivering milk. His father also worked as a fruit peddler.

“I saw firsthand how other hardworking people couldn’t afford to pay their bill, and I saw how my dad treated them, you know?" Caprio told journalist Adrienne Bankert while promoting his biography, “Compassion in Court: Life-Changing Stories from America's Nicest Judge,” earlier this year. "His company ordered him to stop delivery if they missed paying for two weeks. He never stopped delivery. Never.”

Caprio's cousin Carol Caprio Stravato grew up on the same street as Caprio in the tenement buildings their fathers bought working as fruit peddlers.

“No matter what he did through his whole life, he always made the family very proud,” she said. “We didn't come from money. He worked for everything he had. That's why he had compassion for the working man.”

In a 2017 interview with the AP, Caprio said he knows that his courtroom may be the only interaction with the justice system many people ever have. He wanted it to be a positive one.

“Whether it’s justified or not, I think there is distrust of the institutions of government," he said. "I think there’s a sense that there’s lacking in understanding and compassion and kindness with the institutions of government ... I’m not trying to change the world, but I’m trying to do my part to dispel those thoughts, those feelings.”

Father Bob Marciano, pastor of Saint Kevin Parish in Providence and a longtime friend of Caprio's, said Caprio became such a sensation online "because he was so real.”

“Last week, the gospel at Mass was, ‘The last shall be first, and the first shall be last,’ ” he said. "Who’s last but an immigrant from Italy who comes from nothing, and then rises to this rank of a judge in Providence, and then an international star who shows the world with kindness and compassion, really does work and changes lives?

Freida Adams speaks about former Judge Frank Caprio at his visiting hours at the Rhode Island Convention Center in Providence, R.I. on Thursday, Aug. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Leah Willingham)

Freida Adams, right, pays her respects former Judge Frank Caprio at his visiting hours at the Rhode Island Convention Center in Providence, R.I. on Thursday, Aug. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Leah Willingham)

Mourners wait in line to pay their respects to former Judge Frank Caprio at the Rhode Island Convention Center in Providence, R.I. on Thursday, Aug. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Leah Willingham)

Flowers are displayed at the visiting hours for former Judge Frank Caprio at the Rhode Island Convention Center in Providence, R.I. on Thursday, Aug. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Leah Willingham)

FILE - Providence Municipal Court Judge Frank Caprio sits on the bench in Providence, R.I., Aug. 10, 2017. (AP Photo/Michelle R. Smith, File)

The U.N. Security Council scheduled an emergency meeting Thursday to discuss Iran's deadly protests at the request of the United States, even as President Donald Trump left unclear what actions he would take against the Islamic state.

Tehran appeared to make conciliatory statements in an effort to defuse the situation after Trump threatened to take action to stop further killing of protesters, including the execution of anyone detained in Tehran’s bloody crackdown on nationwide protests.

Iran’s crackdown on the demonstrations has killed at least 2,615, the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency reported. The death toll exceeds any other round of protest or unrest in Iran in decades and recalls the chaos surrounding the country’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Iran closed its airspace to commercial flights for hours without explanation early Thursday and some personnel at a key U.S. military base in Qatar were advised to evacuate. The U.S. Embassy in Kuwait also ordered its personnel to “temporary halt” travel to the multiple military bases in the small Gulf Arab country.

Iran previously closed its airspace during the 12-day war against Israel in June.

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“We are against military intervention in Iran,” Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan told journalists in Istanbul on Thursday. “Iran must address its own internal problems… They must address their problems with the region and in global terms through diplomacy so that certain structural problems that cause economic problems can be addressed.”

Ankara and Tehran enjoy warm relations despite often holding divergent interests in the region.

Fidan said the unrest in Iran was rooted in economic conditions caused by sanctions, rather than ideological opposition to the government.

Iranians have been largely absent from an annual pilgrimage to Baghdad, Iraq, to commemorate the death of Imam Musa al-Kadhim, one of the twelve Shiite imams.

Many Iranian pilgrims typically make the journey every year for the annual religious rituals.

Streets across Baghdad were crowded with pilgrims Thursday. Most had arrived on foot from central and southern provinces of Iraq, heading toward the shrine of Imam al-Kadhim in the Kadhimiya district in northern Baghdad,

Adel Zaidan, who owns a hotel near the shrine, said the number of Iranian visitors this year compared to previous years was very small. Other residents agreed.

“This visit is different from previous ones. It lacks the large numbers of Iranian pilgrims, especially in terms of providing food and accommodation,” said Haider Al-Obaidi.

Europe’s largest airline group said Thursday it would halt night flights to and from Tel Aviv and Jordan's capital Amman for five days, citing security concerns as fears grow that unrest in Iran could spiral into wider regional violence.

Lufthansa — which operates Swiss, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines and Eurowings — said flights would run only during daytime hours from Thursday through Monday “due to the current situation in the Middle East.” It said the change would ensure its staff — which includes unionized cabin crews and pilots -- would not be required to stay overnight in the region.

The airline group also said its planes would bypass Iranian and Iraqi airspace, key corridors for air travel between the Middle East and Asia.

Iran closed its airspace to commercial flights for several hours early Thursday without explanation.

A spokesperson for Israel’s Airport Authority, which oversees Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport, said the airport was operating as usual.

Iranian state media has denied claims that a young man arrested during Iran’s recent protests was condemned to death. The statement from Iran’s judicial authorities on Thursday contradicted what it said were “opposition media abroad” which claimed the young man had been quickly sentenced to death during a violent crackdown on anti-government protests in the country.

State television didn’t immediately give any details beyond his name, Erfan Soltani. Iranian judicial authorities said Soltani was being held in a detention facility outside of the capital. Alongside other protesters, he has been accused of “propaganda activities against the regime,” state media said.

New Zealand’s Foreign Minister Winston Peters said Thursday that his government was “appalled by the escalation of violence and repression” in Iran.

“We condemn the brutal crackdown being carried out by Iran’s security forces, including the killing of protesters,” Peters posted on X.

“Iranians have the right to peaceful protest, freedom of expression, and access to information – and that right is currently being brutally repressed,” he said.

Peters said his government had expressed serious concerns to the Iranian Embassy in Wellington.

A demonstrator lights a cigarette with a burning poster depicting Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during a rally in support of Iran's anti-government protests, in Holon, Israel, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

Protesters participate in a demonstration in support of the nationwide mass protests in Iran against the government, in Berlin, Germany, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)

Protesters participate in a demonstration in support of the nationwide mass protests in Iran against the government, in Berlin, Germany, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)