A Republican, he was nominated by Ronald Reagan, and retired from the bench in November 2010 after pleading guilty to drug related charges, including a felony count for giving a stripper cocaine even though he knew she was a convicted felon.

Camp grew up on a working farm in Moreland, Georgia a few miles from Newnan, that had been in his family more than a century.

"I really do believe more members of my generation went to law school because of 'To Kill a Mockingbird,'"—the movie based on Harper Lee's book starring Gregory Peck as the highly principled lawyer Atticus Finch, Camp said.

While he was sitting at the counsel table after the verdict had been rendered, the widow of the dead man suddenly came down the courtroom aisle, pushed past the bar, waving a large butcher knife.

He said he got a call a short time later from the local prosecutor telling him that, "if you don't mind," he intended to drop charges against the widow, adding, "This woman was just upset."

When Camp was nearing 45, United States District Judge Charles Allen Moye Jr. announced he was taking senior status.

Georgia's United States Senators, Sam Nunn and Wyche Fowler, both of whom Camp knew, also vouched for him.

Secretary of State Karen Handel: Camp has handled several voting rights cases and sat on a three-judge panel with U.S. District Judge William S. Duffey Jr. and Eleventh U.S.

[6] Professional Wrestler "Hardbody" Harrison Norris: Cedric Jackson, 41, of Atlanta, Georgia and Aimee Allen, 37, formerly of Cartersville, Georgia, and now of Clarence, New York, were sentenced by Camp on charges of conspiracy to engage in sex trafficking, related to a sex trafficking organization led by former professional wrestler Harrison Norris Jr. Michelle Achuff, 25, of Lafayette, Tennessee, and Leslie Smith, 22, of Macon, Georgia, were also sentenced for making false statements to FBI agents regarding Norris' criminal activities.

[7][8] After he turned 65 in October 2008, Camp notified President George W. Bush that he would be taking senior status on December 31, 2008.

[1] Judges and attorneys in Georgia, Washington, D.C., and Alabama sought to find someone to oversee the criminal case against Camp and to reassign his caseload.

Camp agreed to allow the District Court to reassign all of his pending civil and criminal cases to another judge and to step down from the bench in what was "analogous to a leave of absence" with pay.

[11] Joel F. Dubina, Chief Judge of the Eleventh Circuit, said that after consulting with general counsel of the Administrative Office of U.S. Courts, he had postponed taking any action regarding misconduct proceedings against Camp until after the criminal charges were resolved.

Federal rules give Dubina the authority to appoint a committee of circuit and district judges to investigate judicial misconduct.