During his first trial, in 1978, the accused was found guilty of first-degree murder, but Jack obtained a remand on appeal to the Louisiana Supreme Court over reversible error in jury instructions.
[4] In 1980, the American Psychiatric Association recognized post-traumatic stress disorder in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders III, and Jack employed PTSD as a defense, citing traumatic events in the accused's childhood and his experience in Vietnam.
[2][5][4][6] Jack's law review article[7] on the PTSD case has been cited by legal scholars on several occasions.
He was a member of the Ozark Society and named "Conservationist of the Year" for his contributions and legal work in this area.
[1] Jack successfully led a lawsuit that in 1971 temporarily blocked construction by the Army Corps of Engineers of a dam on the Cossatot River—since the 1990s designated a National Wild and Scenic River—in southwestern Arkansas.