Bio information of slain federal judge in Arizona

NAME: John M. Roll

AGE-BIRTH DATE: 63; Feb. 8, 1947

BIRTHPLACE: Pittsburgh, Pa. Killed in Tucson, Ariz., on Jan. 8.

EXPERIENCE: Named Arizona's chief federal judge in 2006, Roll won acclaim for a career as a respected jurist and leader who had pushed to beef up the court's strained bench to handle a growing number of border crime-related cases. Roll was appointed to the federal bench in 1991 by President George H.W. Bush. He previously served as a state trial judge; a judge on the midlevel Arizona Court of appeals; and as a county and state prosecutor.

EDUCATION: Roll graduated from the University of Arizona with a bachelor's degree in 1969; earned law degree in 1972 at University of Arizona Law College and received his master's law degree from the University of Virginia Law School in 1990.

FAMILY: Survived by wife, Maureen, three sons and five grandchildren.

QUOTE: As the chief judge of what's become the busiest corridor for illegal immigration and drug smuggling, Roll said in June he feared that increased patrols will bring even more cases to his already swamped court.

"If you have more agents in the field, they're going to make more apprehensions. ... Being here on the ground in the middle of everything happening, we would have to have more resources if they're going to bring us more cases," Roll told The AP.

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Source: Federal Judicial Center