Slain federal judge John Roll was at the center of Arizona's immigration debate 8JAN11

ONE of the victims of the mass shooting in Tucson, AZ today.There are, unfortunately, others, just regular people like you and me.....pray for their families as well as for the family of the shooter and for the shooter.....this is a tragedy, such a waste of so many lives.


John. M. Roll, the federal judge killed Saturday in the Tucson shooting that critically wounded Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.), has been at the center of the state's complicated political battle over immigration.
In February 2009, Roll received hundreds of threats after he allowed a lawsuit filed by illegal immigrants against a rancher to go forward. "They cursed him out, threatened to kill his family, said they'd come and take care of him. They really wanted him dead," a law enforcement official told The Washington Post in May 2009.
Threats against federal judges and prosecutors nationwide have been soaring in recent years. There is no indication he was the gunman's target, and witness accounts describe the shooter as firing at Giffords first.
U.S. marshals put Roll, who was appointed to the federal bench by President George H.W. Bush in 1991, under 24-hour protection for about a month. They guarded his home in a secluded area just outside Tucson, screening his mail and escorting him to court, to the gym and even to Mass.
Roll told the Post in May 2009 that "any judge who goes through this knows it's a stressful situation" and that he and his family were grateful for the protection.
More than a year after the threats against Roll, Arizona passed what is considered the nation's toughest immigration law, triggering a fierce national debate over illegal immigration and a lawsuit against the state by the Justice Department.
Roll, a Pennsylvania native, has served as the chief U.S. District Judge in Arizona since 2006. He is a former Arizona state appeals court judge and a former assistant U.S. attorney in Arizona, focusing on prosecuting drug cases, according to his judicial biography on Judgepedia.