Abstract
This paper is about my experience at the Georgia Court of Appeals in Atlanta Georgia. It is also about the judges, its symbol and what an appeal court actually is V. other courts in the criminal justice system.
The history of Georgia Court of Appeals; The Court of Appeals has statewide appellate jurisdiction of all cases except constitutional questions, land title disputes, the construction of wills, murder, election contests, habeas corpus, extraordinary remedies, divorce and alimony and cases where original appellate jurisdiction lies with the superior courts. The Court of Appeals of Georgia certifies legal questions to the Supreme Court. The first courtroom cases were held in an courtroom in the afternoon while in the morning the supreme court would hold their cases before the appeals. These were continued for a while but would be held on separate days. In 1956, a motto was created and engraved on a marble wall behind a bench. This motto stated: "Upon the integrity, wisdom and independence of the judiciary depend the sacred rights of free men." Later there was a first lady judge by the name of Dorothy Toth who changed it to "Upon the integrity, wisdom and independence of the judiciary depend the sacred rights of free men and women."
At a point and time, the Chief Judge was elected by the Court and served in that capacity at the pleasure of the Court. Chief Judge is then rotated; they are rotated for about a two-year term and upon the basis of seniority of tenure on the Court. By statutory authorization the Chief Judge appoints a Presiding Judge for each of the four divisions. The Presiding Judges remain at the top of the four divisions for the full two-year term of the Chief Judge. The other Judges are assigned to the panels on an annual basis. The Court decided this rotation procedure was best to diffuse the judicial power among the members of the court, to give each Judge the opportunity to serve with every other Judge on the court, and to avoid stereotyping of the judges, divisions, and their opinions. When I think about this history of the judges, it brings me back to one of our first lectures when talking about the Legislative, Executive and Judicial branches. Not letting all the power go to one person or in this case one Judge. Walking into the Georgia Court of Appeals I noticed a symbol which reminded me of the Zodiac symbol of a Libra. There symbol is sealed to the State Judicial Building doors, first walking into the court. In the Centennial Year of the Court of Appeals of Georgia, in the year 2006, the Court adopted this seal. In the middle of the seal is a lady who is called “Lady Justice.” Lady Justice symbolizes the fair and equal administration of the law, without corruption, avarice, prejudice, or favor. Yet, prior to this the centennial seal was also adopted in 1907 on January 2nd at the first "en banc" meeting of the judges. Passing those two double doors was the security and metal detector to make sure everyone in the building is safe, pass the security looking ahead was the elevator doors to go up into the court on the 6th floor. Once the doors open you could make a left or a right because there were more cases going on, the case that I was scheduled for was on the left which was the second division. Coming into the courtroom I noticed the clerks were sitting on the left with the attorney and the state was on the right, smack down in the middle was the three judges by the name of Anne Elizabeth Barnes, who was a presiding judge, M. Yvette Miller and William M. Ray who were both judges. A presiding judge can be in both, the state and federal appeals court, they are the judge who chairs the panel of three or more judges during hearings and supervises the business of the court. This judge is chosen to direct the management of the courts. The presiding judge are who makes the assignments of judges to specialized courts (juvenile, probate, criminal, law and motion, family law etc.), oversees the calendar, and chairs meetings of the judges. Judge Anne Elizabeth Barnes won an election in the year, 1998 in the Georgia Court of Appeals in a three-way race. She then went into office on January 1, 1999. She was the first woman to be elected in a state-wide judicial race without being appointed to the bench at first, she was then re-elected, without opposition, to a second term in 2004. In the year 2010, she was elected to a third term, receiving more votes than any other in the State of Georgia. Barnes been a part of a lot such as, Women in the Profession Committee of the Atlanta Bar, the Younger Lawyer Division of the State Bar, and Justice Served. She is a member of the American Bar Association, the State Bar of Georgia, the Atlanta, DeKalb, and Gate City Bar Associations, and so on. Judge M. Yvette Miller was originally appointed to the Court of Appeals of Georgia by Governor Roy Barnes on July 12, in the year 1999, when she became the first African-American woman and 65th Judge on the Court. Miller was re-elected statewide without opposition by the citizens of Georgia for three six-year terms, in July, 2012. Miller was unanimously selected by her fellow judges to serve as Chief Judge for a two-year term, which she started on January 1, 2009, and ended in January 1, 2011. Judge Miller is the first African-American woman to serve as Chief Judge of the Court of Appeals of Georgia. During her tenure as Chief Judge, the Court implemented the e-filing initiative, which has improved access to the appellate court for attorneys and parties throughout the state of Georgia. After serving as the Court's Chief Judge, Judge Miller became a Presiding Judge on the Court. Lastly, Judge Ray On January 14, 2002, Judge Ray took the oath of office as a Superior Court Judge for the Gwinnett Judicial Circuit, having been appointed by then Governor Roy Barnes to fill an unexpired term. He was re-elected in November of 2002, 2006, and 2010. In 2005, Judge Ray founded the Gwinnett Drug Treatment Court, among the first handful of treatment courts in Georgia, and he served as its Presiding Judge for seven years. He also served for many years as the Chair of the Legislation Committee of the Council of Superior Court Judges, and most recently, as the Secretary-Treasurer of this statewide governing council of the 200 plus Superior Court Judges. He has also served as a Trustee on Board of the Judicial Retirement System. An appellate court, also known as an appeals court or court of appeals, sometimes court of second instance or second instance court, it is a court of law that is to hear an appeal. In some jurisdiction, the court system is divided into at least three levels: the trial court, which initially hears cases and reviews evidence and testimony to determine the facts of the case; at least one intermediate appellate court; and a supreme (or court of last resort) which primarily reviews the decisions of the intermediate courts. A jurisdiction's supreme court is that jurisdiction's highest appellate court. The authority of appellate courts to review decisions of lower courts varies widely from one jurisdiction to another. In some places, the appellate court has limited powers of review. Sitting in the court waiting for everything to start, I started looking around and noticed many paintings hanging; I assumed it was previous judges who were important to certain trials. My case that I heard was John James Lampl V. The State. They didn’t go in real big details and it was a bit confusing but from what I got out of it was that he was a former employee who was targeted and did not know that he was. The lawyer brought to every ones attention that this is supposed to be a justice system and that everything should be considered fair. He stretched the fact that they didn’t let his client know that he was the one who was going to be at cross-examination and that his client was unprepared for this (no lawyer, no evidence etc.) He related this case to Jenkins V. State 70 years ago. The lawyer went off emotions explaining how should he tell his client that this is not fair? They also based this off of not going by the 5th amendment. Each the lawyer and the state had only 15 minutes to plead their case, while he finished a lady stepped up on the state side by the name of Katherine Power, she represented Clayton County (I was excited when I heard this because this is the county I live in) Katherine stated that the grand jury was not abusing such acts. That no constitutional right was abridge, she believed this was related to State V. Hill of 5-7-2 and she requested that they deny the appeal as she sat down. For some reason when this case came up I thought about Gideon V. Wainwright even though it’s not exactly the same but this came to my attention because they both did not have a lawyer present at the time. Overall, now that I am interested I would like to know how this would work out if the State will win or James. I had a great time in such a short amount of time and I am glad that this was one of my assignments.
