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While he has not yet tried to punish Huie, Battle last autumn cited four other men for contempt because of articles about the trial published in Memphis newspapers. Though he is modest and taciturn, Battle does not intend to be pushed around by the participants in the case—not even by the suave and explosive Percy Foreman of Houston, Ray's lawyer. According to one Memphis attorney, who knows Battle's style: "He can eat you out all of a sudden without your ever knowing it's coming and without changing his expression."
Beating the Bottle. Born into a family that cherishes its Confederate past, Battle graduated from Washington and Lee University and then from Memphis State University Law School. A pal of Political Boss Ed Crump's son, he was appointed assistant district attorney of Memphis in 1934, later became one of the city's top criminal lawyers. Over the years, he had to lick a drinking problem; today he gives talks to Alcoholics Anonymous groups so that others may profit by his example.
Having beaten the bottle and built a lucrative practice, Battle surprised everyone in 1959 by deciding to run for his current judgeship, which pays only $15,000 a year. He frankly admits that he was attracted by a pension equal to 75% of his salary. But Battle has proved to be more than a mere machine politician putting in time on the bench while he waits to retire. He has been a courageous judge. In one highly unpopular decision, he dismissed an indictment against a Memphis theater manager who had been charged with possessing and planning to screen a French film entitled I Spit on Your Grave, which showed nude love-making by interracial couples. Battle found the state's obscenity law unconstitutional because it failed to meet requirements spelled out by the U.S. Supreme Court. "They told me I'd be opening a Pandora's box for children," says Battle about the ruling, "but I have to call 'em as I see 'em."