Kindness, understanding and dignity: Rhode Island and the world say goodbye to Judge Frank Caprio

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WLNE) — Services for Judge Frank Caprio began at the Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul at 10 a.m. Friday, as friends and family rose to recount memories of “America’s nicest judge.”

Providence’s honor guard, local and state officials, and family and friends all came to honor the life of the beloved judge.

“We will all be strong and we will continue to carry out your instructions, family comes first,” Frank Caprio, Jr. said. “And the extended family of Rhode Island and around the world. He thanks you, we thank you, for everything.”

He was the compassionate courtroom judge seen by millions, whose rulings changed so many lives for the better.

For 40 years, Judge Frank Caprio would hear cases from his Providence, Rhode Island bench, and along the way earned the reputation as “America’s nicest judge,” saying he treated each case with kindness, understanding and dignity.

In later years, his hit TV show “Caught in Providence” put his humor and heart on full display.

Services began on Aug. 28, with mourners lining the inside of the convention center in Providence for a public remembrance visitation.

People from all over the world said they remembered him most for his compassionate rulings on the bench.

And of course, Caprio’s impacts are felt strongly at home in Rhode Island, where he was born and raised.

Those who knew him in his early days said he’d been changing lives for decades.

“In 1973, at 16-years-old, I was a page in the Constitutional Convention here in Rhode Island, and I met then attorney Frank Caprio,” Paul Lebon said. “He guided me through my college years and through my career.”

And it’s the way Judge Caprio treated people of all backgrounds, that has left its mark on entire communities.

“I’ve known the judge for over 30-40 years,” said Joseph Buchanan. “I’m a 73-year-old Black man born and raised in South Providence.”

When asked what he’d like people who never met Caprio to know about the man, Buchanan said, “I would like to know that Judge Caprio took care over everybody…he was a man that took justice into his hands and did the right thing with it.”