The race for the 351st District Court has Republican incumbent Judge Mark Kent Ellis facing Democratic candidate and defense attorney Mekisha Walker Murray. In this instance, my personal knowledge of Judge Ellis is only in passing, but Mekisha is a former prosecutor and a personal friend of mine.
Judge Ellis is an 8-year veteran of the District Attorney's Office, which he followed with 3 years of private practice. He has been on the bench since 1997. He has handled numerous death penalty Capital Murder trials and brings to the table eleven years of experience on the Bench. He is known as a very capable and intelligent judge who truly loves the law.
If anything, it could be said he might actually love the law a bit too much, as he is well known for spending upwards of about four hours during his portion of voir dire educating the jury panel on the "ins and outs" of how criminal law works. Now, this is often times rather aggravating to the prosecutors and defense attorneys (who are already quite familiar with the law), but Judge Ellis regularly gets compliments and thanks from the jurors who listen to his lecture. I don't think that anyone could make an argument that Judge Ellis is cutting any corners when it comes to ensuring well-educated jurors will end up on juries in his court.
In addition to his regular duties in the 351st, Judge Ellis is a former-member of the STAR Court judges dealing with defendants with substance abusers. In 2006, however, he switched from working in the STAR Court to being one of two judges supervising the Harris County Mental Health Court, which is a specialized court dealing with Defendants suffering from mental health issues.
I think that both prosecutors and defense attorneys alike can agree that dealing with mental health issues in the criminal court system is a complex and often troubling prospect. Everyone agrees that the criminal justice system and the way it is currently set up is ill-equipped to deal with persons accused of crimes who also suffer from legitimate mental illness. There is a line that must be walked that balances fairness to people who don't fully grasp the consequences of their actions and still takes into account the safety of the general public.
It's not an easy task, but it is one that Judge Ellis has volunteered his time to help work through.
Mekisha Murray, as I mentioned before, is a former prosecutor and current defense attorney. I like Mekisha and I think she has a brilliant legal mind and is an extremely hard worker.
When she was in the Justice of the Peace Division, Mekisha was known for doing legal research on Class C violations and case law regarding the traffic code. She was known for being an extremely intense prosecutor who worked very hard on her cases, often very late into the night. She served at the D.A.'s Office for somewhere around five or six years, I believe, before leaving as a Felony Two.
For those of you not familiar with the Office, the position of Felony Two is one of the most difficult positions in the Office. A Felony Two carries an enormous case load of serious felony trials ranging from high amounts of narcotics to Aggravated Robberies to Aggravated Sexual Assaults to Murders. Pretty much the only case that a Felony Two is not considered qualified to try is a Capital Murder case. A prosecutor will spend anywhere between four to five years in the position of Felony Two before being considered for promotion to Felony Chief. If the prosecutor has been able to survive those years of being a Felony Two, they can pretty much handle anything.
Mekisha left the Office fairly early on into her tenure as a Felony Two and didn't rise to the level of Felony Chief.
I don't say this to disparage Mekisha, because I think that at some point she will gather the credentials to be a good candidate for Judge. But as it stands now, she has been attorney for slightly less than six years. There's something to be said for experience, and she is still in the process of acquiring it at this point. I, myself, have only been a lawyer for almost ten years now, and I don't consider myself qualified to be a judge at this point based on my years of experience. I have a hard time thinking that Mekisha is quite there yet, either.
In the case of Judge Ellis, you are dealing with a long-standing judge who, not only has experience, but also is trying to make a difference in the community. His work with both the STAR Court and now the Mental Health courts clearly illustrate that it would be in the public's best interest to keep Judge Ellis on the bench.
7 comments:
I used to know her and met her husband once. I liked her.
She also used to run criminal history checks while in JP trials and use that against the Defendants.
She was at the DAs office less than five years and never tried a murder or Agg Sex Assault of a Child.
She has no place on the bench.
She is the least qualified of all the Democratic candidates for the District Courts. While you criticized the candidate in the 339th for being just a municipal court judge, at least she has some judicial experience. I agree with anon 8:16. Mrs. Murray has no place on the bench.
If you read the Chronicle--the poll results NOT their endorsements-- the sad thing is that she may be swept in. That would TRULY be a tragedy.
I agree that she shouldn't be on the bench yet... but she has much more of a place on the bench than Maria Jackson, and some others. She will research the law, sometimes with a little overkill. I fear that if she is elected, she will be spending a lot of time researching issues that she already knows, "just to be extra sure..." More experienced trial judges wouldn't do that..
I was a prosecutor in Judge Ellis's court and I worked with Mekiesha as a prosecutor also. Whereas, I loathed sitting through a six hour voir dire--or jury selection--with Judge Ellis, it did feel like the jury was getting at least two speeches from the prosecution's point of view, which was worth the pain in your legs from not having moved for several hours. And, talk about a judge who absolutely knows the law, and I think follows it even when it means the prosecution might get screwed. Judge Ellis is extremely intelligent in most ways (he's lacking a little common sense in the area of a person's actual attention span) and a pure asset to the bench.
Mekiesha, well, no one can say she's not a really hard worker because she is, and she's intelligent with a great sense of humor. And, if actually elected, she'd probably go above and beyond the call of duty to make sure she doesn't screw it all up. However, she sometimes misses the forest through the trees. I'm not convinced she's a "big picture" kind of gal.
She doesn't have any business being on the bench right now. Maybe in years to come.
She openly states that she hopes black voters believe she is black (because of her name) so they will vote for her. Is this demonstrative of judicial judgment?
If that is true then it is poetic justice that she was the only Democratic candidate to lose. And by a wide margin at that.
Post a Comment