Fred C. Sexton, Jr.

Fred Curtis Sexton, Jr.
Judge of the Louisiana 1st Judicial District Court
In office 1975–1981
Judge of the Louisiana Court of Appeal for the Second Circuit
In office 1982–1996
Born	December 7, 1938 Shreveport, Louisiana
Died	July 9, 2017 Shreveport, Louisiana
Political party	Democrat-turned-Republican
Spouse(s)	Never married
Alma mater	C. E. Byrd High School Tulane University Tulane Law School
Occupation	Lawyer

Fred Curtis Sexton, Jr. (born December 7, 1938 – July 9, 2017), was a state district and circuit court judge in his native Shreveport, Louisiana.

Sexton was the only child of Eunice Mae McClenaghan (1912-1979) and Fred "Doc" Sexton, Sr. (1903-1976). In 1956, he graduated from C. E. Byrd High School in Shreveport, at which he was the president of both the student council and the Southern Association of Student Councils. He was a captain in the Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps. In 2011, he was inducted into the Byrd Hall of Fame. In 1961, he obtained a degree in economics from Tulane University and three years later his Juris Doctorate from Tulane School of Law.

Sexton served as a first lieutenant in the United States Army, in which capacity he made preparation for possible deployment during theaftermath of the  Cuban Missile Crisis. He was thereafter a captain of the Army Reserve in Shreveport, in which he obtained the rank of captain. In 1964, he launched his private practice of law as a partner with the firm, Hendrick, Fant, Sexton & Bain. From 1968 to 1974, he was an assistant district attorney for Caddo Parish, in which capacity he served on the board of the Louisiana District Attorneys Association. He was active in local and statewide drug abuse programs, including CODAC (Community Organization for Drug Abuse Concerns), of which he was the co-founder and the president. He was a member of the Governor's Task Force on Drug Enforcement. Throughout his legal career, he was a lecturer in criminal law seminars.

In 1974, as a Democrat, Sexton was elected judge of the Louisiana 1st Judicial District Court in Caddo Parish. He continued in that position without opposition through 1981. In January 1982, he was elected judge of the Louisiana Second Circuit Court of Appeal, also based in Shreveport. He retired from the circuit judgeship in 1996. During that time, he also served on occasion by appointment on the Louisiana Supreme Court. As a retired jurist, he had continued to serve as needed by appointment as judge in various district and courts of appeal throughout the state. He was active in the Shreveport and the Louisiana bar associations and the Louisiana Retired Judges Association. He was appointed by the Speaker of the Louisiana House of Representatives to the Louisiana Indigent Defense Task Force. He served by state Supreme Court appointment on committees dealing with judicial ethics and campaign oversight.

According to his obituary, Judge Sexton

exibited high standards and showed respect for litigants, attorneys and the public in his courtroom. He was an articulate expert in the law and applied it accurately, but in a common sense way. He dispensed justice evenly to all who came before his court. He never lost sight of his role as a protector of individual rights, but he also considered the effects of his decisions on the rights and expectations of society as a whole so that law and order could be maintained. ... To know Judge Sexton was to know a true Renaissance man - a man of law, sports, music, intelligence and life.

Though educated at Tulane, he was strong supporter of Louisiana State University football and a past chairman of Shreveport's Independence Bowl. At the time of Judge Sexton's death, the Louisiana Secretary of State's office listed him as a registered Republican.

Sexton died at the age of seventy-eight and was survived by two cousins, Jay Bryan Jones, III, and Kristi Cavett Jones, both of Shreveport. He is interred along with his parents at Forest Park East Cemetery in Shreveport.