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King was born in 1940 in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia. His father died when King was only ten, leaving his mother, Gladys, a widow at thirty-one. Gladys raised King and his two siblings while working in a kitchen at The Greenbrier resort, all the while instilling in them the importance of hard work and education. King and his sister would later endow a scholarship at West Virginia University in honor of their mother's dedication to her children and their education.
King began his legal career as a law clerk in Charleston for Judge John A. Field, Jr. on the Southern District of West Virginia. After clerking, King joined the firm Haynes & Ford in Lewisburg. He returned to Charleston in 1970 to serve as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Southern District of West Virginia, where he stayed until 1974. One of King's most significant prosecutions during this time involved the bribing of a juror in the 1968 trial of former West Virginia Governor William Wallace Barron and some of his associates, who faced corruption charges. The jury foreperson confessed to accepting a bribe for acquittals, and Governor Barron subsequently pled guilty, received a twelve-year prison sentence, and became a government witness in the trials of two other people implicated in the bribery. As an Assistant U.S. Attorney, King also prosecuted five Logan County officials on civil rights charges relating to electoral fraud.
In 1974, King returned to private practice at Spilman, Thomas, Battle & Klostermeyer in Charleston and became a partner in 1975. While at the Spilman firm, King served on the West Virginia State Bar's Committee on Legal Ethics. He investigated alleged ethical violations by lawyers and represented the committee in proceedings before the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia.
In 1977, at the recommendation of West Virginia Senator Robert Byrd, President Carter appointed King U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of West Virginia. As U.S. Attorney, King took on high-profile white-collar crime and public corruption cases. His investigation into the liquor industry and Alcohol Beverage Control Commission of West Virginia resulted in the conviction of more than forty individuals and corporations on charges including commercial bribery, mail fraud, extortion, and RICO violations.
In 1981, King returned to private practice and helped found the law firm King Betts & Allen (now Allen Guthrie McHugh & Thomas). He was a managing partner from 1981 to 1993 and from 1997 until his judicial appointment in 1998. During his thirty years of practice, King tried over 120 cases and argued many appeals. As a federal prosecutor, he prosecuted defendants in cases involving public corruption, electoral fraud, organized crime, and many other crimes. In private practice, he also handled many criminal cases as well as civil cases ranging from wrongful death, personal injury, products liability, professional malpractice, and civil rights. Reflecting on King's record, Judge M. Blane Michael of the Fourth Circuit remarked that “there was little that Judge King had not done in the practice of law by the time he became a judge."
In August 2021, King announced plans to assume senior status upon the confirmation of a successor. However, in November, he formally withdrew his August letter and announced he would continue on as an active member of the Fourth Circuit. Reports surfaced that judge King preferred former U.S. Senator Carte Goodwin to be nominated to replace him while the White House preferred J. Jeaneen Legato, a personal-injury lawyer in Charleston, West Virginia.
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King in 2022