Robert T. Johnson (lawyer)

Johnson's term on the Supreme Court ends in 2030. However, under New York law he will have to retire no later than December 31, 2018, at the end of the calendar year during which he will reach the age of 70. He will then be eligible to continue in office on senior status, without having to be re-elected, for three two-year periods.

Nevertheless, Johnson ran for re-election in 2015 for another term as Bronx County district attorney, and faced no opposition in the primary elections on September 10, which he won be default. Exactly one week later, on September 17, Johnson announced that he wanted to become a state judge. The announcement was met with severe and swift criticism by good government advocates, who said it was a transparent scheme engineered by Johnson and Democratic party power brokers to make sure the party could get the replacement district attorney of their own choice, not that of the voters. After receiving the judicial nomination by the Bronx Democratic Party the following week, Johnson then announced his resignation from his district attorney position. Under New York State Law, since the primary election had already taken place, the county parties named Johnson's replacements on the ballot, bypassing the voters. The replacement on the Democratic line was Darcel Clark, and in the heavily Democratic Bronx, she won the District Attorney's office by a landslide in the general election. By participating in this arrangement, Johnson received $300,000 in pension and salary.

As early as 2013, there were reports of an arrangement for Johnson to resign as Bronx County district attorney in return for a seat as a New York State Supreme Court justice in the Bronx. The plan was reportedly coordinated by New York State Assemblyman Carl Heastie, who held vast influence over Democratic Party nominations in his capacity as the party's county chairman. Johnson's office's failure to file paperwork allowed Heastie to make over $200,000 from the sale of a home Heastie's mother bought with funds she stole from South East Bronx Neighborhood Center's Quality Vending Services, a not-for-profit where she worked.

In 2005, he became the longest-serving Bronx County district attorney.

On March 14, 1996, New York City police officer Kevin Gillespie was shot to death in the Bronx, and three men were immediately arrested in his killing. Ex-convict Angel Diaz was named as the gunman. The next day, Republican Governor George Pataki was publicly pressuring Johnson, an opponent of the death penalty, to seek it against Diaz, and threatening to take the case away from Johnson if he refused to do so. Johnson wrote in a letter to Pataki that he wanted the 120 days allotted under New York State law to decide whether or not to seek the death penalty, and threatened to take Pataki to court if he tried to remove him from the case. The following day, Pataki followed through on his threat and removed Johnson from the case, assigning it to Dennis Vacco, the New York State Attorney General. In response, Johnson sued Pataki for jurisdiction over the case.

In September 1996, Diaz hung himself in his jail cell, ending the practical aspects of the dispute. The two men arrested with Diaz, Ricardo Morales and Jesus Mendez, were eventually convicted of several charges including second degree murder in May 1997 and sentenced to mandatory life in prison, and on appeal, the New York Court of Appeals upheld Pataki's removal of Johnson as constitutional in December 1997.

Johnson previously lived in Fordham, Bronx. In 1994, he moved to the former house of Mario Procaccino, a candidate for mayor of New York City, that was located in an area of the Bronx between the Westchester County town of Pelham and Pelham Bay Park, known as Bronx Manor. While Procaccino faced criticism for living in that area during his mayoral campaign, according to Jane Gross of The New York Times, Johnson did not face controversy for moving there since he had only token opposition during his next election campaign for district attorney.

In 1988, Johnson ran for Bronx County district attorney, and won the Democratic primary election in September. He was elected without opposition, as no Republican candidate had even filed to run in the race, making him the first African-American to be elected to the position of district attorney in New York State. He was re-elected six times, often without opposition.

Johnson was appointed a New York City Criminal Court judge in 1986 by Mayor Edward Koch. He later served as an acting New York Supreme Court justice.

Upon graduating from law school, Johnson went to work as a defense attorney for the Legal Aid Society. In 1978, he became a prosecutor for the Bronx County District Attorney's office, eventually rising to the rank of Narcotics Bureau chief.

Johnson was born in the Bronx, and grew up in the Amsterdam Houses, a housing project on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. He went to James Monroe High School, then enlisted in the United States Navy in 1968, and went on to graduate from the City College of New York with a bachelor's degree in philosophy. In 1975, he graduated from the New York University School of Law.

Robert Thomas Johnson (born 1948) is an American attorney and jurist serving as a justice of the New York State Supreme Court in the county of the Bronx. He was previously a New York City Criminal Court judge, an acting justice of the New York State Supreme Court, and a long-time Bronx County district attorney in New York City.