Mississippi Court of Appeals consists of 10 judges with varied backgrounds, representing every geographic region of the state.
One of them, Virginia Carlton, also is a military judge, a wife and mother and a former member of the Mississippi Legislature. She has worked as a prosecutor and a defense attorney.
In a question-and-answer session following a speech to the McComb Rotary Club Wednesday, Carlton, one of two females on the court, was asked if she brought a unique perspective to the panel because she’a a woman.
She responded that she, like the other judges, is a “culmination of my experiences.”
But she said she never wanted to be known as a “good woman judge” but rather “a good judge and a good lawyer” without the gender tag.
Carlton is from Columbia but now resides in Jackson to better juggle parenting and court duties. Her husband is in the National Guard.
Most of her speech was aMost of Carlton’s speech was about the Court of Appeals, which was established in 1994 to expedite cases appealed to the state Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court, at its discretion, can assign certain appeals to the Court of Appeals which is an intermediate court.
Its 10 members consist of two each from what once were five congressional districts in the state.
The judges are elected, except when there is a vacancy between elections and the governor appoints a replacement.
Carlton hedged on a question about whether appellate judges should be appointed or elected and said she couldn’t comment on pending cases or actions by other branches of the government.
Asked about a spate of recent pardons and suspended sentences by outgoing Gov. Haley Barbour, she responded, “that’s another branch of government.”
