Merry Christmas to Georgia!

December 20, 2011 8:58 am

by Mike Hassinger · 6 comments

    Georgians have received a wonderful end-of-year present: Superior Court Judge Amanda Williams will leave the bench and never seek judicial office again. From the AP:

    “Superior Court Judge Amanda F. Williams said in the letter to Gov. Nathan Deal that she would resign on Jan. 2 after 21 years on the bench. She also said in a consent order with the Judicial Qualifications Commission that she would not seek another judicial office and that she would turn down senior judge status.“

    The AJC noted:

    “In November, the state Judicial Qualifications Commission filed a dozen charges against Williams, accusing her of indefinitely detaining defendants and cutting off their access to their family and lawyers. She also was charged with making false statements, behaving in a tyrannical manner on the bench and allowing family members to appear in cases before her.“

    And it would be an oversight to fail to thank Ira Glass, host of “This American Life” who produced an episode called “Very Tough Love” that highlighted Amanda Williams’ drug court tyranny and first brought public attention to the issue back in April.

    Sic semper tyrannis and Merry Christmas.

     

      { 6 comments }

      Calypso December 20, 2011 at 9:50 am

      Ding Dong! The Witch is dead. Which old Witch? The Wicked Witch!
      Ding Dong! The Wicked Witch is dead.
      Wake up – sleepy head, rub your eyes, get out of bed.
      Wake up, the Wicked Witch is dead. She’s gone where the goblins go,
      Below – below – below. Yo-ho, let’s open up and sing and ring the bells out.
      Ding Dong’ the merry-oh, sing it high, sing it low.
      Let them know
      The Wicked Witch is dead!

      Dash Riptide December 20, 2011 at 6:54 pm

      That was my exact response when Mrs. Dash messaged me. The first six words, anyway.

      JasonW December 20, 2011 at 1:31 pm

      Any of you who know me, knows this was a very personal issue to me, as I’m from the Judicial circuit, a lawyer-to-be, and someone who’s witnessed the tyranny of JAWS (as we call her down south). I will soon be writing a letter to Gov. Deal in support of a probable nomination of Mary Helen Moses for Superior Court Judge!

      saltycracker December 20, 2011 at 1:42 pm

      Didn’t Williams beat Moses 66%/33% for reelection ?
      Williams’ (on the bench since ’91) tyranny didn’t happen overnight so why was Moses so soundly defeated ?
      Maybe Glynn County needs to rethink it all.

      GOPObserver December 20, 2011 at 11:12 pm

      Perhaps soon to be former Judge Williams could take over when Judge Judy retires seeing as how she allegedly screamed at people for chuckling in her courtroom. Sounds like she’d be a perfect successor for Judge Judy.

      Doug Deal December 21, 2011 at 10:01 am

      Glenn “Instapundit” Reynolds had posted something on his blog the past week about the idea of a Judicial Administrator. This would basically be an official who would oversee local and superior court judges to make sure they are not abusing their powers. They would make sure the judge did things like come back to work after lunch, did not abuse his discretion, and acted professionally and would report directly to the state’s Supreme Court. A single judicial qualifications board cannot hope to keep up with the day to day activities of 100′s of judges.

      Having seen up close the behavior of the state’s judges with my attorney wife, I have only seen two that have acted with the professionalism I would expect from a sitting judge.

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