Latrice Westbrooks isn’t running as a Democrat or Republican because judicial elections are officially nonpartisan.
But the Jackson attorney made it clear where she stands in her race for the Mississippi Court of Appeals Wednesday night to the Greenwood Voters League.
“What I will tell and what I can tell you is that I do support our president, and I also support our congressman, Bennie Thompson,” Westbrooks said, referring to two Democrats. “Let me also say that my opponent was appointed by Haley Barbour a year ago, and she was also appointed by Kirk Fordice in the late ’90s as a circuit court judge.”
Barbour and Fordice were both former Republican governors.
Westbrooks will face incumbent Ermea “E.J.” Russell of Flora and Ceola James of Vicksburg, who frequently runs for judicial offices with little success, in the Nov. 6 general election.
Russell became the first African-American woman to serve on the state Court of Appeals when Barbour picked her in May 2011 to fill a vacancy created when former Chief Judge Leslie King was appointed to the Mississippi Supreme Court. Russell previously served as a Hinds County circuit judge.
The election is in District 2, Position 2 of the state Court of Appeals. The judgeship pays a $105,050 salary.
The court hears appeals from state courts. The state Legislature created it in 1995 to relieve a backlog for the state Supreme Court.
The appeals court is divided into five districts based on Mississippi’s former congressional districts. Each district has two judges elected to eight-year terms.
Tyree Irving, the other District 2 judge, is not up for election this year.
District 2 includes 23 counties, including Leflore and Carroll.
Westbrooks said she’s been practicing law for 15 years. She’s been a prosecutor and is currently a public defender in Holmes County.
Her family is from Tallahatchie County, and Westbrooks said she’s argued cases throughout District 2 over the past decade.
She said she was president of the African-American Student Association during college and led a sit-in that resulted in funding for the Student Association’s programs.
As an attorney, Westbrooks said, she has been available to people who otherwise wouldn’t have access to the judicial system.
For example, she said in 2008 she represented a young Madison County mother who was charged with the murder of her son. Prosecutors said the death was the result of alcohol poisoning, but Westbrooks said she and her associates helped prove the real cause of death was pneumonia. The woman is now back with her other children after spending 14 months in jail, Westbrooks said.
• Contact Charlie Smith at 581-7235 or csmith@gwcommonwealth.com.
