Baptism in the Little River

Sundays are for church and family. Today Sam and I headed to the Little River near Walland to sit in the shallows and throw rocks and catch crawdads in the early afternoon heat. Soon after we'd settled in to our spot in the middle of the river and caught our first crawdad a congregation gathered on the bank. We could see the women in their Sunday clothes and the children milling about and hear bits and pieces of the guitars playing and the preaching and singing. But "Amazing Grace" does carry right over the water so we sang along and headed back towards the bank to join in rather than observe. We made it just in time to catch a young deacon who slipped and fell in the current on his way to assist with the baptism and just in time to see the sheer joy of an entire family baptized. The Lord does work in mysterious ways his wonders to behold. The congregation took us in and blessed us. I know there is a mighty heart to the people who live in this place and we are all blessed to join in whenever we can.

Should you be on a Jury if you are over 65 years of age?

Another minor problem in our local legal system has been the automatic exclusion of persons over 65 from the jury pool. The result was that younger less experienced jurors not fairly representing a cross-section of our community were deciding important legal business for the rest of us. Would it restore your confidence in the integrity of our legal system, to know that persons over 65 are now being summonsed for jury duty? For me, I noticed the youthful nature of our potential jurors and asked our computer services folks what was going on. It turns out that our County's computers had been programmed to automatically excluded all persons over 65 from jury duty. Yes, you may claim an exemption from the first summons if you are over 65 but an automatic and complete exclusion is not provided for that reason alone. It may be an inconvenience for Judges and Clerks to sort through those who are over 65 and identify those who continue to be ready willing and able to serve but it's surely worth the effort to restore the wisdom of our somewhat older citizens to our juries.

Independence Day

I haven't been able or willing to keep up with the bad press this past month. Most recently, Joel Davis' Daily Times article: "Judge Under Judicial Conduct Review" with the bad photo my wife took of me in our front yard was troublesome. Like most folks I read the headline, saw the bad photo, and concluded: "Now that is a criminal if ever there was one." Wait a minute that's me you're talking about.

Does anybody care about the truth. My opponent in this judicial race has one thing right, judges are not supposed to say anything which would cause the public to lose confidence in the integrity or impartiality of the Judiciary. The only problem is he is standing behind the very persons who are engaging in a smear campaign on his behalf. I haven't seen my opponent clamoring to get to the front of the line and correct one single lie. Where is the integrity in that? I have been personally attacked enough. The lies from other judges and the lawyers who most benefit from maintaining the status quo have gone far enough. I am one judge who is independent from other public officials and lawyers and I will tell the truth.

Let's start with my October 2007 Order regarding the 202 defendants whose warrants or indictments had been waiting to be served for over a year, whose names had not been logged into the Clerk's Bridge Computer system and who weren't even being passively sought by having their names and information logged into the National Crime Information Center. Would anyone besides me consider that a backlog of unresolved cases in the Criminal Division of Circuit Court? Would my opponent or other judges think that it was fair or impartial to allow some defendants to go unprosecuted while others go to jail? Doesn't maintaining the confidence and integrity of the public in the judiciary require that each case and each individual defendant be treated the same way.

Faith, Lies & Statistics

When someone lies about you in a public forum it hurts. I've come up with a theory however that political lies force candidates to become both tougher and at the same time suprisingly more religious people. The truth is found only with a power much greater than that which people use when speaking to serve their own purposes.

In my case I'm still hurt that my reputation as a hardworking legal professional was damaged when my political foes published false statistics about my performance as Circuit Court Judge. I have worked hard, tried the hard cases and pushed the docket forward yet my opponents say the opposite. The official Administrative Office of the Courts statistics as of March 31, 2008 say that during my term, 1,189 matters were disposed of in the Criminal Division of Circuit Court while only 1,076 were filed. A net positive to all who can count.

Still the lie has forced me look at more accurately accounting for each case that I've heard since becoming Judge. As a result there will be new numbers and greater proof that I have succeeded in getting the job done. I'm just going to have to take it on faith that the truth really matters and that the voters will look at my performance on the job as a key issue in voting to keep me as their Circuit Judge.

Memorial Day Weekend

This past weekend I escaped to the Great Smoky Mountains and the headwaters of the West Prong of the Little River. If you hike up Bote Mountain trail just past the intersection of Lead Cove trail you can hike off trail down the east side of the mountain to the river and find yourself in a wilderness which seems a million miles from all civilization. Following the stream past the lower and upper Chestnut Falls you eventually reach the spot where people must have lived in the 1930s when this section of the Smokies was last logged. The only signs of people which remain are a few broken pieces of an old cast iron stove. There is no trail, no foundation, no campsite, no people, no plastic. There is only a relatively flat spot in a narrow valley filled with eighty year tall Tulip Poplars and marked by three branches tied with bright orange surveyor's tape. An hour further wading through the rhodedendron, the stream and the bramble you arrive just a half mile further upstream and the wilderness is then pristine. The creek cuts a narrow straight path through the deep forest running down a steady hill among green moss covered stones.

Monkey Business

People with serious jobs don't have time to belittle others because of their political affiliations. The mayor's recent derogatory remarks about democrats on the County Commission have us all thinking he doesn't belong in a leadership position. For me his most revealing remark, however, was his unintended slip in referring to the position in which I serve as "my circuit court judge". No, Jerry, Judges don't belong to you! This County is not your private party. We have over a hundred thousand people with a variety of serious problems and we can't move into the future with a government for a few good ole boys who'll laugh at your jokes.

Robinson Chapel on Howe Street

Last Friday night I found myself walking door to door on Howe Street in Alcoa. If you know anything about law enforcement in Blount County, you know that the Howe Street Park has been the setting for more than one crime story, but do you know about Robinson Chapel Cumberland Presbyterian Church less than a block away? I had visited there before but truly had no idea when my friends pulled me inside the church what the fifth day of a Revival with a dynamite preacher was really like. I cannot accurately capture the rhythm, the music and the Word but let me say that I am further convinced that whatever plans we may think we have God's plans are seldom the same as ours.