We're saddened to learn that former federal judge Harry Claiborne has died.

Harry Claiborne, an impeached federal judge who returned to prominence as a defense attorney and refused to allow bitterness over his downfall to cloud his colorful life and career, died Monday. He was 86. Claiborne, a shrewd defense attorney who long battled cancer and a heart condition, committed suicide, his family confirmed today.

"My road through life has indeed been a rocky one, but, my God, it has been exciting -- I'm the lucky one," Claiborne said in his folksy Arkansas drawl for an Oct. 3, 1996, Sun story.

Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman, who as an attorney represented Claiborne during his two criminal trials and his impeachment proceedings in Congress, said Claiborne should be remembered as a man who "put his clients before anything else. "From the time I was a young lawyer coming into town, he was the first criminal defense lawyer I met," Goodman said. "He was a master of the profession. He was unparalleled as far as his ability to marshal the facts of the case and ... present them in a clear and concise way to the jury."

"He was enchanting as far as his work was concerned. I can't think of anybody I miss more in the legal community than Harry Claiborne."

R.I.P., Judge Claiborne.