By Michele Evans
NYWeeklyRecord.com
8/8/2026

Categories: Courts, New York, Legal Community, In Memoriam

NEW YORK — Retired Justice John Carro, a pioneering New York jurist who broke barriers for Puerto Rican lawyers and judges and spent decades opening doors for those who followed him, has died at the age of 98.

Carro was the father of Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Gregory Carro, but his own remarkable journey through New York’s legal system established a legacy that extended far beyond one family.

Born in Puerto Rico in 1927 and raised in New York City, John Carro rose from humble beginnings to occupy a place in New York judicial history. He served in the United States Navy from 1945 to 1947 before attending Fordham University and Brooklyn Law School.

His career would eventually take him to one of the most influential courts in the state.

Before joining the bench, Carro worked in New York City government and became the first Puerto Rican to serve as an assistant to Mayor Robert F. Wagner, holding that position from 1960 to 1965.

In 1969, he was appointed to New York City Criminal Court. He became an acting Supreme Court justice in 1976 and was elected to the Supreme Court the following year.

Then came the appointment that made history.

In 1979, Gov. Hugh L. Carey appointed Carro to the Appellate Division, First Department, making him the first Puerto Rican designated to serve as an Appellate Division justice in New York.

Carro remained on the First Department for 15 years, retiring from the bench in 1994.

But his importance cannot be measured simply by the years he spent wearing a robe.

At a time when Latino representation within the legal profession — particularly at its highest levels — was far more limited than it is today, Carro became both an example and an advocate.

He served as president of the Puerto Rican Bar Association and the Association of Judges of Hispanic Heritage. His civic work included involvement with the Puerto Rican Forum, ASPIRA and the Puerto Rican Legal Defense Fund. He also taught as an adjunct professor and devoted considerable attention to encouraging Latino and Hispanic attorneys to enter the profession and pursue positions of leadership.

His name continues to be associated with judicial excellence. The Association of Judges of Hispanic Heritage established the John Carro Award for Judicial Excellence, honoring jurists for their understanding of the law and commitment to preserving human rights.

His influence also reached the next generation of his own family.

His son, Gregory Carro, followed him into the judiciary and today serves as a justice of the New York State Supreme Court in Manhattan.

In June 2002, when Gregory Carro appeared before the New York State Senate for confirmation to the Court of Claims, John Carro was seated in the gallery watching his son’s appointment move forward.

The moment carried particular weight.

By then, John Carro had already spent decades breaking barriers within New York’s legal system, including becoming the first Puerto Rican justice appointed to the Appellate Division.

To then sit in the Senate chamber and witness his own son advance within that same judicial system offered a quiet but powerful reflection of the legacy he had built — not only in public service, but within his own family.

Senators acknowledged John Carro’s presence during the proceedings and remarked on the pride he must have felt watching his son receive confirmation.

It was a fitting image for a career defined by opening doors: a father who had once broken through one of New York law’s most significant barriers sitting nearby as his son stepped further into public service.

John Carro’s path was not simply one of professional advancement. It was part of a broader transformation of New York’s legal institutions.

When he entered the profession, a Puerto Rican lawyer reaching the upper levels of the state’s judiciary was itself groundbreaking. By the time he retired, generations of Latino attorneys could look toward the bench and see evidence that those barriers could be broken.

After leaving the judiciary, Carro returned to private practice and helped establish the firm that became Carro, Carro & Mitchell.

In 2018, he documented his journey in his memoir, Judge John Carro — “The Nuyorican” — A Memoir.

His story stretched from Puerto Rico to New York City, from military service to City Hall, from the trial courts to the Appellate Division.

But perhaps the most enduring part of John Carro’s legacy is not simply that he was the first.

It is that he spent much of the life that followed making sure he would not be the last.

Justice John Carro was 98.