Christopher Murray
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Christopher M. Murray is a judge on the Michigan First District Court of Appeals. Chief Judge Pro Tem Murray was appointed to the Court in 2002. His current term expires January 1, 2015.[1]
Legal career
Judge Murray is a graduate of Hillsdale College and the University of Detroit School of Law. Before becoming an appellate judge, he served as a judge on the Wayne Circuit Court in the Family Division, as Deputy Legal Counsel to Governor John Engler and as an attorney in private practice.[1]
Awards, memberships and civic activities
While in private practice, Judge Murray also served as chairman of the State Board of Ethics and as a member of the Local Government Claims Review Board. He has had several articles published in Michigan legal periodicals, including "State-Tribal Issues: A Legal Perspective," in The Michigan Bar Journal (October 1996). A member of the Michigan Bar Association, Judge Murray serves as treasurer for the Incorporated Society of Irish-American Lawyers and on the board of directors for both the Detroit Metropolitan Bar Association and the Catholic Lawyers Society.[2]
Political affiliation
Republican.
RMGN proposal and the Court of Appeals
Reform Michigan Government Now's (RMGN) failed proposal to reduce the Michigan Court of Appeals from 28 to 21 judges, based on term expiration dates, would have shifted the court's political power from the Republicans to the Democrats. Had the proposal passed, the court's political makeup would have been changed from the current 16 Republican judges and 12 Democratic judges to 10 Republican judges and 11 Democratic judges--thereby eliminating six Republican judges and one Democratic judge. Judge Murray, a Republican appointed by former Governor John M. Engler in 2002, was a target of this proposal.[3]
Court rejects bid to remove judges in Kilpatrick case
According to the Detroit News, the Michigan Court of Appeals rejected Wayne County Prosecutor's effort to remove every judge in the city's 36th District Court from overseeing proceedings in the criminal case against then-Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick. With that ruling, the court discarded the idea that there is an appearance of impropriety for the entire bench. In an opinion authored by Kirsten Frank Kelly, and signed by Kurtis Wilder and Christopher Murray, "That the judges of the 36th District Court may have relationships with witnesses beyond those prescribed in the court rule does not warrant recusal, in absence of showing bias (and none is alleged), because the role of the judge in a preliminary exam is not to gauge guilt or innocence, and generally does not require making credibility determinations."[4]
See also
External links
- Michigan Court of Appeals: Christopher Murray
- The Arab American Institute
- Institute of Continuing Legal Education
- Judges of the Court of Appeals
- Appeals Court rejects bid to remove judges from Kilpatrick case
- Appeals court reinstates original verdict, killer wife guilty of first-degree murder
- Court of Appeals upholds guilty verdict
References
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