Jackson Free Press

Born in Jackson in 1945.
Graduated Ole Miss in 1971.
Graduated from University of Memphis in 1969.
One of the first African Americans to attend Millsaps in 1965.
Served in the U.S. Navy from 1963 to 1965.
Practicing law for 35 years.

William Jordan has been embedded in politics for decades. The attorney was the first opponent to run against 2nd Congressional District's Rep. Bennie Thompson after his special election more than a decade ago. In 1995, he ran unsuccessfully against Attorney General Mike Moore. Jordan left Jackson for a short time to indulge in a happy life of lawyering in California, but came back because he said the people of Mississippi are more honest.

"I was in Beverly Hills, had an unlimited expense account, practicing in Beverly Hills. A friend of mine was president of the Beverly Hills Chamber of Commerce. My office was a block and a half from Rodeo Drive, but everywhere I went I talked about Mississippi. People look down on Mississippi, and I found myself defending the state. I did that so much that I started asking myself 'Why am I in California if I like Mississippi so much? So I just had to move back home," Jordan says. "Say what you want about Mississippi, but if somebody in Wisconsin doesn't like you, he'll never tell you. But in Mississippi he will, and then you can deal with it."

The Mississippi and California bar association member has served on numerous boards. Former Gov. Kirk Fordice appointed him to an advisory board designed to hammer out a solution to the much-disputed 1990s Ayers settlement. In Ayers, minority colleges won a suit against the state for its unfair funding of "white" colleges over minority colleges like JSU, but the state argued that minority colleges should first work to serve a bigger white clientele before it would fork over the money. Jordan also served on the Mississippi State Ethics Commission and other appointments.

Jordan says he brings plenty of experience to the race.

"I've seen court cases from every side," he says. "I used to be the prosecutor in the town of Edwards, and the public defender in the city of Jackson. I've been a big law firm defense lawyer. At Ingalls Shipyard, on the coast, I defended against mass torts, but I've also been on the side of mass torts."

Jordan accuses the incumbent of prosecuting on the bench.

"Judge DeLaughter claimed he was in private practice for 10 years, but he doesn't act like he was in private practice (the way he treats attorneys in his courtroom). And, let's be frank: He's kind of a prosecutor on the bench. The Mississippi Supreme Court has told him to stop prosecuting on the bench. Look, some people have total disregard for life, but every case needs to be looked on individually. I know the difference between the cases that need permanent prison time and those that need something else."

Bobby DeLaughter, 52
Born in Vicksburg in 1954.
Moved to Jackson as a young child.
Graduated from Ole Miss Law School in 1977.
10 years private practice as an attorney.
13 years as a prosecutor in Hinds County.
Six years serving as Hinds County Circuit Court Judge.

Judge Bobby DeLaughter is one of the few incumbents actually shielding his seat this year. Whereas Judges Tomie Green and Winston Kidd run unopposed, DeLaughter must defend his record, and he does so with confidence.

"You need the know-how to be a good judge for the people," DeLaughter says. You need to be able to make correct rulings on the spot. Ninty-nine percent of the time you do not have the luxury of taking several days researching the law and coming up with an answer. You have to be able to apply that law with a particular situation that arises in court as it arises. You've got to make correct rulings on that or else you'll find yourself being reversed on appeal and having to do it all over again, often at taxpayers expense."

While critics frustrated at bottlenecks in the justice system frequently hurl barbs at the judges, DeLaughter explains that the situation is not choked for lack of hard work.

"No circuit judge has supervisory authority over any other circuit judge. I will not, and never have claimed credit for what someone else does. But by the same token, I do not like to take the blame for what someone else does. I just have the power to attend to my own docket, and if one were to go back and look at the numbers over the years that I have been on the bench, one would see that I have disposed of more felony criminal cases in the circuit court than any other circuit judge on the bench. I've led the pack. I keep my docket moving," DeLaughter claims with considerable pride.

DeLaughter claims that he disposed of hundreds of civil cases last year, in addition to the criminal cases, more than twice that of any other circuit judge in the county.

"This is not a 9-to-5 job," he says. "I take home work every evening. … I hear my motions on criminal cases on Monday morning. I hear my motions on civil cases on Friday mornings, and from noon on Monday until the end of the day on Thursday, I'm usually in trial. Then Friday afternoons is the time I set aside to whatever research I need to do to stay on top of the law. (The) Supreme Court turns out opinions every Thursday, and on Fridays I read through those opinions to stay current on the law."

That kind of schedule leaves no daytime hours to research motions. That has to come out of the evenings.

"Last night, when I got home I worked on jury instructions to be able to give to a jury in a murder trial today. It's a job I love, but the reason I love it certainly isn't because it's cushy," he says.

District 7-1

James Ashley Ogden, 38
Born in Homestead Florida.
Graduated from Mississippi College of Law in 1994.
Graduated from Mercer Univ. in Macon, Ga. in 1990.
No information available for 1994 to 2000.
Formed Ogden & Associates in 2000, specializing in consumer law.
Mentor and class sponsor at Poindexter Elementary.

James Ashley Ogden is nothing if not a firebrand. Ogden says he's running for the 7-1 Circuit Court district because he's furious about the persistent bottleneck in the criminal court system, which he says is driving crime in Jackson up to impossible proportions.

He makes no bones about his belief that the bottleneck has plenty to do with incumbent Judge Swan Yerger.

"He's been on the bench 10 years, and under his agenda there's been nothing but crime problems and judicial backlog," Ogden says, pledging to "take Jackson back from the criminals and end judicial gridlock."

"I'm going to show up at 8 a.m. and stay until 5 p.m. I'm asking for an all criminal rocket docket, which means I can do criminal cases five days a week, three to four at a time, until we get rid of the backlog and we get ahead so the people who want a trial can get one within six months and not wait six years," Ogden says.

Ogden pulls few punches in his criticism of the incumbent.

"The incumbent's 74 or 75 years old. He's been on the bench going on 10 years. He announced that he was going to retire in a few years. In 2005, he only tried 11 criminal cases the entire year. Does that sound like he's working to you? That's unacceptable. Some of these are just one-day cases; they're not O.J. Simpson. Many of these are purse snatchings, car thefts, assaults and robberies. I mean, I live in Jackson, my business and family are in Jackson, and if somebody doesn't stand up for Jackson and start fighting for the city it's going to disappear in a crime wave. I'm not doing this for the money or the fame. I'm doing it so save this city from crime. I'm trying to save the city, and he's using the bench as a retirement plan," Ogden says.

Ogden says he doesn't agree with the opinion that much of the circuit court backlog is due to a lack of manpower in the county prosecutor's office, insisting that the judge has the power to move cases forward.

"All the judge has to do is go to the district attorney and the public defender and say 'move these cases or I'll throw them out.' If there's a judge telling you to move your cases you'll do it to look like you're doing something. The judge has the power. He's the chief. He's in charge," Ogden says, again touting his raw energy. "It's time for someone aggressive to work twice as long and twice as hard on the bench."

Swan Yerger, 74
Born In Jackson.
Four years as Senior Circuit Judge.
Ten years as Hinds County Circuit Judge.
Thirty-eight years as an attorney.
Graduated Univ. of Virginia Law School in 1958.
Graduated Ole Miss in 1954
Served two years in Air Force

Rather than re-coiling under the attacks of his younger opponent, Yerger is quick to snap back in his defense, lashing angrily out against Ogden's campaign claim to increase the amount of criminal trials a week. It's an oversimplification of the problem, Yerger says.

"He has suggested that he will have 10 criminal trials a week if he's judge, which is ludicrous to anybody experienced in criminal law. It takes half a day just to get a jury in a criminal case. Rarely does a criminal case end in one day. It's at least two days, sometimes four and five, sometimes longer, depending on the nature of the crime, the number of witnesses and so forth," he says.

Yerger responded similarly to Ogden's criticism of him having only 11 criminal trials in 2005.

"He's criticized me for only having 11 criminal trials, but that doesn't include a few hundred civil trials and all the hearings," Yerger says. "I had 228 criminal sentencings, which of course involved hearings. And I also go down to Raymond about every two weeks and handle arraignments and pleas, which frees beds up in the detention center and keeps the system moving. It's misleading to say 'you've only had this many criminal trials.'"

Yerger says he's very conscious of maintaining his criminal docket, explaining that he's reduced his docket down to 130 active cases—the lowest among other judges.

Also, contrary to Ogden's opinion, Yerger says a judge/tyrant lording over the D.A.'s office and public defender would only further clog the process.

"The D.A. runs her office, and the public defenders run their office. We work together, and by working together we have worked my criminal docket down to a manageable docket. I prod them continuously, but they work hard on both sides and are cooperative and we get a lot done," Yerger says.

As a final note, Yerger is not beyond tossing a few of his own barbs at Ogden, making a point to aim at what he considers to be Ogden's inexperience of the system.

"He said 2,000 people are out on the streets. I don't know of any statistics, but how many of those are misdemeanors? We at the Circuit Court level don't even get involved in those releases—except in rare instances—until someone has been served with an indictment. We don't know how many of those 2,000 people have been indicted or are misdemeanors, so he's just throwing numbers and figures around," Yerger says.