Mississippi Court of Appeals

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The Mississippi Court of Appeals is the intermediate-level appellate court for Mississippi. The court was created by the Mississippi Legislature to relieve a backlog of cases in the Mississippi Supreme Court, and commenced operations in 1995.

The Mississippi Court of Appeals hears and decides appeals from the various trial courts of the state. The cases the court hears are assigned to it by the Supreme Court of Mississippi, and generally relate to issues where the law is already settled, but the facts are in dispute. For this reason, it is known as an "error correction court". It hears and decides appeals on issues in which the law is already settled, but the facts are in dispute.The Supreme Court may review Court of Appeals decisions, but if the Supreme Court declines review, the decision of the Court of Appeals stands.

The court's geographic jurisdiction is divided into five districts. Some of the state's counties are divided between districts.

• Court
• Elections

Judges of this court are typically listed by seniority. Click the arrows in the "Term" column to sort judges by their dates of service.

Mississippi Court of Appeals
Court information
Judges:	9
Judicial selection
Method:	Non-partisan election of judges
Term:	8 years
Active judges
Ceola James  •  Joseph Lee  •  Tyree Irving  •  T. Kenneth Griffis  •  Donna Barnes  •  David Ishee  •  Larry Roberts  •  Virginia Carlton  •  Eugene Fair  •  Jimmy Maxwell  •  Gene Fair  •

Judges

Judges of the Mississippi Court of Appeals

There are ten judges on the Mississippi Court of Appeals. Non-partisan elections are staggered so that not all positions are up for election at one time. Court of Appeals judges serve eight-year terms.

Judge	Term	Division	Appointed by	Party
Judge Ceola James	2013-2020	District 2, Position 2
Chief Judge Joseph Lee	1998-2018	District 4, Position 2
Presiding Judge Tyree Irving	1998-2018	District 2, Position 1
Presiding Judge T. Kenneth Griffis	2002-2015	District 3, Position 2
Judge Donna Barnes	2004-2018	District 1, Position 2	Gov. Haley Barbour
Judge David Ishee	2004-present	District 5, Position 2	Gov. Haley Barbour
Judge Larry Roberts	2006-present	District 3, Position 1	Gov. Haley Barbour
Judge Virginia Carlton	2007-2015	District 4, Position 1
Judge Eugene Fair	2012-2020	District 5, Position 1	Gov. Haley Barbour
Judge Jimmy Maxwell	2009-2018	District 1, Position 1	Gov. Haley Barbour
Judge Gene Fair	2011-present	District 5, Position 1	Gov. Haley Barbour

Former judges

• William Myers
• Ermea Russell

Districts

District 1

• Includes the counties of Alcorn, Benton, Calhoun, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Desoto, Grenada (split w/District 2), Itawamba, Lafayette, Lee Marshall, Monroe, Montgomery, Oktibbeha (split w/District 3), Panola (split w/District 2), Pontotoc, Prentiss, Tallahatchie (split w/District 2), Tate, Tippah, Tishominto, Union, Webster, and Yalobusha.

Judges

• Position 1 - Jimmy Maxwell
• Position 2 - Donna Barnes

District 2

• Includes the counties of Attala (split w/District 3), Bolivar, Carroll, Claiborne, Coahoma, Grenada (split w/District 1), Hinds (split w/District 4), Holmes, Humphreys, Issaquena, Jefferson, Leake (split w/District 3), Leflore, Madison (split w/District 3), Montgomery (split w/District 1), Panola (split w/District 1), Quitman, Sharkey, Sunflower, Tallahatchie (split w/District 1), Tunica, Warren, Washington, and Yazoo.

Judges

• Position 1 - Tyree Irving
• Position 2 - Ceola James

District 3

• Includes the counties of Attala (split w/District 2), Clarke, Clay, Jasper, Jones (split w/District 4), Kemper, Lauderdale, Leake (split w/District 2), Lowndes, Madison (split w/District 2), Neshoba, Newton, Noxubee, Oktibbeha (split w/District 1), Rankin, Scott, Smith, Wayne (split w/District 5) and Winston.

Judges

• Position 1 - Larry Roberts
• Position 2 - Kenneth Griffis

District 4

• Includes the counties of Adams, Amite, Copiah, Covington, Franklin, Hinds (split w/District 2), Jefferson Davis, Jones (split w/District 3), Lawrence, Lincoln, Marion, Pike, Simpson, Walthall and Wilkinson.

Judges

• Position 1 - Virginia Carlton
• Position 2 - Joseph Lee

District 5

• Includes the counties of Forrest, George, Greene, Hancock, Harrison, Jackson, Lamar, Pearl River, Perry, Stone, Wayne (split w/District 3).

Judges

• Position 1 - Eugene Fair
• Position 2 - David M. Ishee

References

• Homepage of the Mississippi Court of Appeals
• Map of Mississippi Court of Appeals Districts

2012

To organize the columns, click on the arrows in the column heading.

Candidate	Incumbency	Office	Election Vote
JamesCeola James   A	No	District 2, Position 2	63%   A
RussellErmea Russell	Yes	District 2, Position 2	37%   D
FairEugene Fair   A	Yes	District 5, Position 1	A