Myron Leavitt, 73; Nevada Politician, High Court Justice

Myron Leavitt, 73, a Nevada Supreme Court justice, died Friday at a Las Vegas hospital. He had suffered from diabetes and received a kidney transplant Nov. 17, but the cause of death was not announced.

Leavitt, who had a long political career in Nevada, was born in Las Vegas and was a football and track athlete at the University of Nevada at Reno, where he earned a journalism degree. He worked a year as sports editor of the Las Vegas Review-Journal before studying law at the University of Utah.

In private law practice for 28 years, Leavitt argued a case that forced the state Legislature to reapportion itself based on population.

He served as a Las Vegas city councilman, a Clark County commissioner and a justice of the peace before winning election as lieutenant governor from 1979 to 1983. As presiding officer of the Senate, the conservative Democrat cast the deciding vote to retain the death penalty.

Leavitt ran unsuccessfully for governor in 1982, and failed to win election to the Supreme Court in 1988 and 1994. He served as a Clark County District Court judge for 15 years before winning a Supreme Court position in 1998.