Edward Douglas Cowart was born on February 17, 1925 to William and Helen (nee Douglas) in Plant City, FL. He had an older brother named William that was born in 1920. Judge Cowart served in the Navy from 1942 to 1946 and when he returned married Elizabeth Pearl Royal on July 22, 1946. The couple had two daughters, Susan and Patricia. Cowart worked as a motorcycle officer in the Miami Police Department before returning to school to earn his degrees in law: he got a BA in 1950 from the University of Miami and a JD from Stetson University in 1952. 

Cowart worked as a Dade County Circuit Court Judge for 14 years. He was highly respected in the law community and was well-known for his almost Southern hospitality and long drawl. The trial that helped make him famous is that of Ted Bundy, who had a messy, incomplete background in law himself and was originally arrested for a series of murders in the Pacific Northwest on August 16, 1975 in Utah (between at the very least 1974 and 75). The judge imposed a death sentence on the serial killer, and he is frequently remembered for his unusually sympathetic post-sentencing remarks to Bundy:

‘The court finds that both of these killings were indeed heinous, atrocious and cruel. And that they were extremely wicked, shockingly evil, vile and the product of a design to inflict a high degree of pain and utter indifference to human life. This court, independent of, but in agreement with the advisory sentence rendered by the jury does hereby impose the death penalty upon the defendant Theodore Robert Bundy. It is further ordered that on such scheduled date that you’ll be put to death by a current of electricity, sufficient to cause your immediate death, and such current of electricity shall continue to pass through your body until you are dead. Take care of yourself, young man. I say that to you sincerely; take care of yourself. It is an utter tragedy for this court to see such a total waste of humanity, I think, as I’ve experienced in this courtroom. You’re a bright young man. You’d have made a good lawyer and I would have loved to have you practice in front of me, but you went another way, partner. I don’t feel any animosity toward you. I want you to know that. Once again, take care of yourself.’

Cowart replaced Gerald Kogan in the position of Dade County Circuit Court, as he was appointed to the Florida state Supreme Court. About Cowart, Kogan said that he was ‘one of those human beings who was destined to be a judge. He was intelligent, he was compassionate, he was understanding, and when he had to be, he was tough as nails.’ 

In 1982 then Dade State Attorney and (former) US Attorney General Janet Reno hired Cowart to be her chief assistant, in between his stints on the bench. He stayed in the position until 1984, when he went back to be a judge at the Dade County Circuit Court. Every year he was in that role, Cowart ranked either at or close to the top in the annual Dade Bar poll of judges. 

Just after midnight on August 3, 1987 Edward Douglas Cowart died of a massive heart attack at Coral Reef hospital in Miami at the age of 62. He was cremated and the location of ashes is unknown. In his obituary published by The Miami Herald on August 7, 1987, ‘from jail guards to Supreme Court justices, traffic cops to traffic judges,the wept together and swapped favorite stories on Thursday (August 6, 1987) at a memorial service for Dade Circuit Court Judge Edward Cowart.’ The 25 minute long service in the massive Old Cutler Presbyterian Church (which seats 1,500) was standing room only.

What is so upsetting to me is that Bundy outlived the judge, as he wasn’t executed until January 1989 (after a number of unsuccessful appeals to Cowart and the Court of Appeals in attempts to overturn his death sentence or be granted a new trial). Elizabeth Cowart passed away on April 5, 2001 in Danbury, CT. Their daughter Susan passed away on October 4, 2007.