Campbell takes judgeship
■ To preside at Criminal Court
Back in the early 1980s when John Campbell was in law school at the University of Memphis, he worked as a law clerk for the Criminal Court judges, even though criminal work was not on his shortlist — or any list — of career plans.
He figured the work would be good experience, a nice resume builder and something he’d leave far behind once he graduated and joined a nice silk-tie law firm.
A funny thing happened, though, during his two-year judicial clerkship at 201 Poplar.
“I didn’t want to leave,” said Campbell, 54, a longtime state prosecutor who was sworn in Friday as Criminal Court judge of Division 6. “I had planned to do civil work — wills and divorces and that kind of thing. Now, 30 years later and I’ve never done any of that stuff.
“In Criminal Court, with human nature being what it is, you’re always going to see something that surprises you. That’s what makes this job interesting.”
Campbell recently was appointed by Gov. Bill Haslam to replace Judge John Fowlkes, who resigned in July to become a federal court judge. At his swearing in Friday in the Criminal Justice Center Auditorium, his three predecessors dating back some 40 years — judges James Beasley, Fred Axley and Fowlkes — were among those present.
Longtime colleagues noted his intelligence, hard work and good humor.
Campbell spent a year as a public defender and his next 27 in the Shelby County District Attorneys Office, including the past two years as Dist. Atty. Amy Weirich’s top deputy, which entailed administrative duties as well as courtroom work.
“Good guys do finish first,” Weirich told the gathering of judges, lawyers and other court personnel. “Individually and collectively, we are all better people because of him.”
Campbell tried more than 100 jury trials over the years and since 1997 represented the state in virtually every capital murder post- conviction appeal.
In the 1990s, in hearings covered by international media, he spent nearly six years on the James Earl Ray case as the confessed killer of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Ray claimed his innocence and contended the rifle recovered near the scene was not the murder weapon.
“Every month a new (defense) theory would come up that we would have to respond to and John stayed on top of all of it,” said former district attorney Bill Gibbons, now commissioner of Tennessee’s Department of Safety and Homeland Security. “John was a go-to guy, a student of the law who knew the answer or who could find it quickly.”
Campbell said changing roles from prosecutor, which involved weighing and preparing cases for trial, to judge will involve some adjustments.
“As a judge it’s not your case,” he said. “Both sides must be given a fair shot. And now my opinion matters because that’s what’s going up on appeal.”
Campbell’s first day on the bench will be Monday.