Ronald Marc George (born March 11, 1940) is an American jurist. He previously served as the 27th Chief Justice of California from 1996 to 2011. Governor Pete Wilson appointed George as an associate justice of the Supreme Court in 1991 and elevated George to Chief Justice in 1996. Early life and education George grew up in Beverly Hills, the son of a Hungarian immigrant mother and French immigrant father. George graduated from Beverly Hills High School in 1957. He earned an A.B. from Princeton University in 1961 and J.D. from Stanford Law School in 1964. California Deputy Attorney General After graduating Stanford, George served as a Deputy Attorney General of California from 1965–1972. As a Deputy Attorney General, he argued before the United States Supreme Court in Chimel v. California (1969) and McGautha v. California (1970). In 1971, he represented California as an amicus curiae in support of the State of Illinois in Kirby v. Illinois. In 1972, his final year as a Deputy Attorney General, George unsuccessfully argued in California v. Anderson. He was successful in defending the conviction of Sirhan Sirhan for the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy. Judicial career Los Angeles Municipal Court Governor Ronald Reagan appointed George as a Judge of the Los Angeles Municipal Court on April 20, 1972. George was elected to a full six-year term on November 2, 1976. Los Angeles County Superior Court Governor Jerry Brown appointed him to the Los Angeles County Superior Court on December 23, 1977; George was elected to a full six-year term on November 7, 1978, and re-elected on November 6, 1984. As a Superior Court judge, George presided over the trial of Hillside Strangler Angelo Buono in 1981–83. In that trial, George made the extremely unusual decision to deny the District Attorney's motion to dismiss all 10 counts of murder. The prosecutors felt their evidence against Buono was so weak that it did not justify even an attempt to win at trial, and trial judges rarely second-guess such decisions. George reassigned the case to the California Attorney General's office, and that office successfully convicted Buono on nine of the 10 counts. Thus, it was recognized that the judge, through his action to deny the earlier motion to dismiss, had ultimately prevented a serial killer from going free. Oddly, Los Angeles County District Attorney John Van de Kamp had been elected California Attorney General during the lengthy