Radha Natarajan

Executive director, New England Innocence Project 

Chief Justice Gants was authentic in his desire to use power to effect change, and that authenticity was unwavering.

Last week, after he had returned from the hospital, he told me he was feeling “remarkably well.” I asked him to "please rest because we need you.” Now, he is gone.

'Always Humble, Always Committed': Remembering SJC Chief Justice Ralph Gants

Ralph Gants, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Courts chief justice, poses for a portrait at his desk at the John Adams Courthouse in Boston under portraits of Justice Louis Brandeis, left, and Justice Thurgood Marshall, right, on May 16, 2019. Gants died after suffering a heart attack earlier this month, the court said Monday, Sept. 14, 2020. (John Tlumacki/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)