County having two new circuit court judges appointed

Union County will get two new circuit court judges in the next several weeks, but they may or may not be Union County judges.

One of the three circuit court judges for the Third Circuit Court District, John Gregory, of Okolona, announced his retirement this past week.

Another judge, Andrew Howorth, of Oxford, had announced his retirement earlier this year.

That leaves Kelly Luther of Ripley as the sole incumbent circuit court judge here.

It will be up to Gov. Tate Reeves to appoint the two new judges, who will serve until a special election is held in November 2021. The next regular time the judges would have come up for election would have been in 2022 and the winner of the special election will serve until the end of 2022.

Unless other specified by law, the regular special election day is the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November of each year.

Although we have had some chancellors such as Talmadge Littlejohn from Union County, Judge Luther said he didn’t think there had been a Union County circuit judge in the past 50 years or more. Judge Kenneth Coleman served after moving here but was from Okolona.

The only residency requirement for District Three circuit court judges is that they live in one of the counties in the district. The Third Circuit Court District includes Benton County, Calhoun County, Chickasaw County, Lafayette County, Marshall County, Tippah County and Union County.

The three positions are simply called Place One, Place Two and Place Three and it does not matter which of those counties a judge lives in.

A circuit court judge also must be at least 26 years old, a practicing attorney for five years, and a citizen of the state for five years.

Circuit court mostly deals with criminal offenses that can result in prison time and cases involving civil damages, and is the next step up from justice court.

For reference, the other county-level district court is chancery court, which deals with issues of equity, domestic matters, sanity hearings and wills.

We are in the First Chancery Court District, which does not cover the same area as the circuit court district, and includes Alcorn County, Itawamba County, Lee County, Monroe County, Pontotoc County, Prentiss County, Tishomingo County and Union County.

While circuit court has three judges, chancery court has four chancellors. Their positions are designated as Place One, Place Two, Place Three and Place Four but there are some specific residency requirements.

The chancellor to fill Place One must be a resident of Alcorn, Prentiss or Tishomingo County. The chancellors to fill Place Two and Place Three must reside in Itawamba, Lee, Monroe, Pontotoc or Union County. The chancellor to fill Place Four may be a resident of any county in the district.

A chancellor also must be at least 26 years old, a practicing attorney for five years and a citizen of the state for five years.

Current chancellors are Jacqueline Mask of Tupelo, Michael Malski of Amory, Stephen T. Bailey of Tupelo and Brad Tennison of Booneville.