Prayers To The Judges and Their Families

My church includes in its weekly prayer a prayer for those local, national and international political leaders who must make tough decisions. The prayer is that they will have the Lord's guidance and humility to make wise decisions. Judges, I think, are impliedly part of that group. Certainly, Judges must make tough decisions that have great implications to the individuals in front of them, and to society as a whole. While I know and complain about Judges who get robe-itis from time to time, there are many good judges trying to make good and wise decisions. That will not any easier if the job becomes one in which physical safety is a primary concern.

This has been a tough few weeks for Judges.

Someone targeting a federal judge in Chicago was not able to kill the Judge, but did kill her husband and mother-in-law. The initial scrutiny naturally went to a white supremacist that had been convicted of trying to hire someone to kill the Judge for her handling of his copyrite litigation. Now, according to the article I linked above, there is evidence that some crazy medical malpractice plaintiff that killed himself admitted to the murders in a suicide note. A review of that article tells me that the guy was what I would label a problem litigant. The article leads me to believe that he was a habitual plaintiff with invalid claims. I have had cases with people who were of a similar mold. I have not felt that my life was in danger, but I did think about it sometimes. This type of information only fuels that kind of concern.

What makes this type of case so troubling it that this Judge was not targeted by some Mafia crime boss or drug lord being prosecuted in her courtroom. No, she was targeted twice by two different litigants for her work on civil cases. Just amazing. My prayers are with her and her family. I ask that yours are, too.

Atlanta Judge One Of Three Killed

Today in Atlanta, the saga continues. Fulton County Superior Court Judge Rowland Barnes, a court reporter, and two deputies were shot by a guy standing trial for rape, false imprisonment and lots of other bad things.

There is a lot of confusion about what is going on, but my understanding is that the killer was in the midst of the re-trial, realized he was going to lose this one, and decided that this was his chance to escape. The only weakness in the case was the fact that the rape victim and killer knew each other. This apparently caused some of the jurors in his first trial to not convict. I hope that the jurors who did not vote for guilt are second guessing themselves tonight.

Sadly, the killer did escape -- for now. I am hopeful for a non-jury trial with a summary execution to be completed sometime before the end of the day.

Judge Barnes was considered a good judge in the Atlanta legal community. Please pray for Judge Barnes' family, the family of the court reporter and the two sheriff's deputies. The Deputy that may survive this incident is the one whose was overpowered and whose gun was used for these killings. She will need more than just physical healing.