Prominent Lawyer, CNN Contributor Dies After Being Caught in Rip Tide

A well-known Atlanta attorney died Sunday afternoon after he was caught up in a rip current off the coast of St. Simon's Island in Georgia while swimming with his son. Page Pate, a frequent guest on CNN, worked as a trial lawyer for a quarter-century and helped to found the Georgia Innocence Project, the network reports. He was at Gould's Inlet beach, which is known for its rip currents, when authorities were alerted to two swimmers in distress. They were Pate and his son, but by the time emergency responders arrived, they found that "the adolescent victim reached shore safely," according to the acting fire rescue chief for Glynn County. Pate was pulled from the water by a rescue crew and taken to the hospital, but he could not be resuscitated, Fox 5 reports.

"Some of Page's happiest moments were on trips with his sons, whether long hikes on the West Coast or taking in Nascar races," says a statement from his law firm. The Georgia Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers said members were "shocked and saddened to hear the news of Page Pate's passing. ... Page was a larger-than-life person and attorney." And the Georgia Innocence Project remembers the 55-year-old as a "fierce advocate for the criminally accused and unjustly convicted." (More Georgia stories.)