Ex-New Mexico high court justice, MALDEF founder Sosa dies

The New Mexico Administrative Office of the Courts says former New Mexico Supreme Court Justice and pioneering Latino lawyer Dan Sosa Jr. has died. He was 92. Born in Las Cruces, Sosa served as a World War II pilot before graduating from the University of New Mexico Law School in 1951. He returned to Las Cruces and was elected district attorney to a district that included Doña Ana, Otero and Lincoln counties. He was first Hispanic to serve in that position. In the mid-1960s, he and a group of lawyers founded the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund. The group is now based in California. New Mexico Gov. Jerry Apodaca appointed Sosa to the state Supreme Court in 1975, where he served until his retirement in 1991.