The Attorney General’s Office has named two prosecutors for the new court in Jackson. The judge appointed by Chief Justice Randolph has yet to be named.
The temporary Capitol Complex Improvement District (CCID) Court location in Jackson is scheduled to open its doors in October, assuming construction goes according to plan.
Due to the historic nature of the facility, hurdles remain for renovations at the final location.
The court’s creation within the CCID was approved during the 2023 legislative session as part of HB 1020. The new court will employ at least two prosecutors from the Attorney General’s office and a judge appointed by the Chief Justice of the state Supreme Court. Chief Justice Mike Randolph has not yet named his nominee.
The CCID court is intended to help reduce the backlog of cases that lawmakers behind the bill say is due to the high crime rate in the city of Jackson.
In addition, four additional interim district judges were to be appointed to hear cases in the Hinds County district court system, but that provision of the law was struck down by the Mississippi Supreme Court after the justices ruled that it violated the state constitution.
Work to open temporary and permanent locations is underway
The expected timeline for case processing to begin at the CCID court’s temporary location is sometime in October, said Glenn Kornbrek, deputy executive director of the Department of Finance and Administration.
The temporary site will be the former Continental Trailways bus station, which has been owned by the state for decades. Work to convert the former bus station into a temporary site for the new court included clearing out businesses that support Capitol facilities.
“We have cleared the workshop area of the facility and will prepare it for court as soon as the paint has dried,” Kornbrek said.
Work is also currently underway to renovate a permanent location for the CCID Court, but due to the age of the building, this work is subject to additional restrictions.
“We are using this as a temporary home until we can establish the permanent court location. That will be at the Wright and Ferguson Funeral Home, which is connected to the new Capitol Police Station,” Kornbrek described.
When the state took over the old funeral home at the corner of West and High streets in Jackson, it was agreed that the building could not be demolished. Kornbrek added that the building’s status as a historic building means that any renovations would have to go through the permitting process of the Department of Archives and History.
“The outdoor area is probably the most historic part of the building, and the chapel itself will have some historical issues,” Kornbrek said.
The permanent installation of the CCID courtroom in the chapel of the old funeral home will allow easy access from the Capitol Police Station via a tunnel and elevator. This will help prevent defendants in custody from coming into contact with the public when court proceedings are being heard.
Both the court’s permanent and temporary locations will have only one courtroom but will accommodate two judges, Kornbrek added.
“If two courtrooms are needed, you have to think about what to do in this case,” Kornbrek explained.
Completion of the permanent facility is expected to take at least one year.
Employees of the public prosecutor’s office were named
Michelle Williams, chief of staff in Attorney General Lynn Fitch’s office, said two prosecutors from the Attorney General’s office have been “designated” to serve as prosecutors for the CCID court once work begins. These experienced attorneys are part of the Attorney General’s office staff, she said, adding that they already have experience with cases in municipal courts.
“We have prosecutors in the office, we’ve always had prosecutors in the office,” Williams explained. “So we assigned two of them to take over the CCID cases.”
There is currently no indication of what the caseload for the CCID Court will look like, and since the legislation that created the court provides that cases can be referred to the CCID Court or continue to be referred to the Hinds County Criminal Court, the key word for the Attorney General’s Office, according to Williams, is “flexible.”
“We’re trying to be flexible and prepare for anything that might happen,” Williams added. “It may be that there are only a few cases and these guys can take care of it well. It may be that we have to shift our resources to be able to handle whatever comes our way.”
The names of those who will serve as prosecutors for the court are not being disclosed by the Attorney General’s Office at this time.
“We typically do not release the names of our prosecutors until they arrive,” Williams clarified.
She added that more than two prosecutors may be needed if the caseload is larger than expected, so all prosecutors in the Attorney General’s Office are being prepared to assist the two appointees.
“We have a whole department of prosecutors who are all preparing for this,” Williams said. “Some know their main cases are coming from the CCID, but if the dockets are very small, they won’t give up other cases.”
Opposition to the CCID Court
The NAACP tried to block the establishment of a CCID court, but the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals denied a preliminary injunction earlier this year after U.S. District Judge Henry Wingate also denied it.
In his ruling, Judge Wingate stated that the CCID court was necessary to address the city’s high crime rate.
“Jackson’s crime problem is blazing, undisputed, and overwhelming. The FBI’s crime statistics tell the sad story: In 2020, Jackson reported 130 murders – a record number at the time. In 2021, Jackson surpassed that record with at least 155 reported murders – ‘the highest murder rate per capita in the country…(h)igher than Birmingham, Atlanta, Detroit, and even Chicago.’ (Docket 34-4, p. 3). In 2022, despite a 14% decline in the murder rate, Jackson reported 138 murders that year, and Jackson’s ‘murder rate nonetheless exceeded that of any other major city in the United States for the second year in a row.’ Ibid., p. 20,” explains Judge Wingate.
The Mississippi NAACP Conference and others joined the blockade motion, arguing that the court would violate the voting rights of Jackson residents, who are majority black, by appointing judges and prosecutors.
As previously reported, the Fifth Circuit, like Judge Wingate, ultimately disagreed and ruled that the law did not deprive Jackson of his rights. The existing Hinds County courts will continue to function as before despite the new court.
“In summary, plaintiffs do not allege any identifiable actual harm and therefore lack standing to assert their claims. Without the requisite standing, they cannot obtain an injunction,” the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals said.
— Article courtesy of Jeremy Pittari of the Magnolia Tribune —
