Perseverance of Judge James

There is a rematch of sorts for the Court of Appeals this November between incumbent Judge Ceola James and her challenger Latrice Westbrooks in District Two, which is the “old Second Congressional District” made up of the Mississippi Delta from Tunica County down to Jefferson County and mostly west of I-55.

James won the seat in 2012 as the first African American woman elected to the Mississippi Court of Appeals. She defeated E.J. Russell, the first African American woman to serve on that Court, appointed by then Governor Haley Barbour. At the time, I called it “a victory for perseverance” for James who had run for the Supreme Court in 2004 (garnered 5.3 percent in a four person race); again for the Supreme Court in 2008 (10 percent of the vote in a three person race); and then in 2010 challenged Judge Tyree Irving for the Court of Appeals, but came up short with 34 percent of the vote. She defeated Russell with more than 60 percent of the vote.

For a time, Westbrooks was also a candidate in that 2012 race along with James and Russell. The State Board of Election Commissioners determined that year that Westbrooks was not a resident of the district (she lived seven-tenths of a mile outside the district) as was required, and removed her from the ballot. The following day, Westbrooks executed a lease agreement for a residence in Durant, Holmes County (which is in the district). She then challenged the Commission’s decision in Hinds County Circuit Court. She argued residency was not required, but if it were, she was now a resident. Judge Winston Kidd found in her favor.

But that victory was short lived. The Mississippi Supreme Court took the case on expedited appeal and ruled 5 to 3 that indeed residency in the district is required and that Westbrooks’ residential lease (which commenced on Sept. 11, 2012, and extended until Sept. 11, 2012) did not indicate actual proof of her “permanent home and principal establishment.”

Westbrooks was not allowed on the ballot that year, but the Hinds County Deputy Circuit Clerk in 2012 claimed her lawsuit caused the county to miss a deadline to make overseas and military ballots available within the time frame required by federal law. Before being removed from the ballot, Westbrooks’ campaign had raised more than the campaigns of Russell and James combined.

Prior to winning her seat on the Court of Appeals in 2012, James served as a Ninth District Chancery Judge (Washington, Warren, Sharkey, Issaquena, Humphreys, Sunflower counties). According to her official biography James also, “served Warren County by appointment as a Special Master in Chancery Court, and as a Justice Court Judge. She served as a special City Judge for the City of Port Gibson. The Mississippi Supreme Court appointed her to hear limited cases as a special Chancery Judge in Scott and Rankin Counties … [and was] a certified guardian ad litem in Youth Court.”

A Vicksburg native, James has deep roots in Warren County where she helped lead the 1972 civil rights boycott in Vicksburg, and her cousin Mabel Fisher Peterson was Warren County’s first elected African-American judge.

Westbrooks currently serves as a Municipal Judge in Lexington, Holmes County. Prior to that she served in Jackson Mayor Chokwe Lumumba’a administration first as interim communications director and then as legal counsel for the Jackson Police Department. For two years she was the host of her own legal call-in show on Jackson’s 90.1 WMPRFM.

According to her campaign biography Westbrooks, “set a historical precedent by becoming the first African-American woman Assistant District Attorney in the Second Judicial District for the Circuit Court of Mississippi. Afterwards she joined the law firm of Byrd and Associates in Jackson, Mississippi where she litigated cases against Jim Walter Homes receiving a jury verdict of $13.1 million dollars. In December 2001, Ms. Westbrooks opened her own practice where she has serviced a number of clients in both criminal and civil matters. Clients have been successfully cleared of burglary, rape, drug and homicide charges. She assisted in the defense of an accused in the `Hanging Moss Barber Shop Murders’ in Jackson where she successfully argued that the capital murder charges against her client should be reduced to murder thereby eliminating the possibility of the death penalty.”

Judicial candidates run non-partisan elections but this district turns out with an overwhelmingly Democratic majority. Westbrooks appears to have a strong Hinds County network of supporters and her campaign web page lists endorsements from Representative John Hines, Hinds County Tax Collector Eddie Fair, Holmes County Supervisor Debra Mabry and the sheriffs of Holmes, Claiborne, Washington, and Sunflower counties. Meanwhile, James should post strong numbers in Warren County and pull support from her previous six-county chancery district. Westbrooks base seems larger in population, but never count out the perseverance of James.

Brian Perry is a columnist for the Madison County Journal and a partner with Capstone Public Affairs, LLC. Reach him at reasonablyright@brianperry.ms or @CapstonePerry on Twitter.