Jackson Bedford
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T. Jackson Bedford is a superior court judge in Fulton County, Georgia.
Biography
Judge T. Jackson Bedford was born on April 18, 1944, in Opelika, Alabama. His father was a Naval officer, and his mother was a church secretary. He traveled extensively as a child and graduated from John Marshall High School, a public high school in Oklahoma City, in 1962. Judge Bedford is married to Patty Wynne Bedford.[1]
Military Service
Judge Bedford received a Naval ROTC scholarship to the University of Virginia, from where he received a B.A. in International Affairs in 1966. The same year, he was commissioned Ensign in the United States Navy. In 1967, he received Naval Flight Officer Wings. The following year, he was deployed to Vietnam aboard the U.S.S. Intrepid.
While in Vietnam, he flew over 100 combat support missions and was awarded two air medals. Judge Bedford flew the last combat mission by a single engine propeller airplane in the U.S. Navy. One of his planes is on exhibit at the Museum of Naval Aviation in Pensacola, Florida.
Judge Bedford has served as Legal Officer for the Naval Air Technical Training Command and Naval Intelligence Officer for the Naval Reserve. He sits on the Advisory Board of the Atlanta Vietnam Veterans Business Association.[1]
Education
Bedford received his J.D. from Emory University School of Law in 1973.[1]
Legal career
Bedford was elected to the court in 1996. Prior to that, he spent 24 years as an attorney.[1]
Memberships, Awards, and Community Involvement
Judge Bedford served as President of the Atlanta Bar Association for the 1994-1995 term. He is a member of the State Bar of Georgia, American Bar Association, Atlanta Bar Association, Dekalb County Bar Association, Cobb County Bar Association, Gate City Bar Association, Hispanic Bar Association, National Conference of Bar Presidents, Lawyers Club of Atlanta, Old Warhorse Lawyers Club, Family Law and General Practice sections of the State Bar of Georgia, Council of Superior Court Judges of Georgia, National Center for State Courts, and American Judge’s Association.
Judge Bedford is a leader in the Atlanta legal community. He served as President of the Atlanta Bar Association for the 1994-1995 term, and he was a delegate to the American Bar Association House of Delegates from 1994 to 2000. In 1986, he founded the Sole Practitioner/Small Firm Division of the Atlanta Bar Association, which is now modeled in various cities throughout the United States and in Australia. He also founded the Atlanta Bar Association’s Santa Project for children and need; as Presiding Santa of the Project, Judge Bedford visits needy children in shelters and hospitals throughout Atlanta.
Judge Bedford is the Vice-President of the Atlanta Bar Foundation, an organization focused primarily on children’s and family issues. He was a member of the four-judge team that created an implemented the Family Court Division Pilot Project, which led to the creation of the Family Division of the Fulton County Superior Court. He also founded the Atlanta Bar Association’s Santa Project for children and need; as Presiding Santa of the Project, Judge Bedford visits needy children in shelters and hospitals throughout Atlanta.
In 1999, Judge Bedford received the State Bar of Georgia Excellence in Bar Leadership Award. He has also received the Atlanta Bar President’s Cup, President’s Section of the Year Award, and Charles E. Watkins Award for Distinguished and Sustained Service to the Atlanta Bar Association.
He sits on the Board of the Atlanta Bar Association and Atlanta Volunteer Lawyers Association, as well as the Advisory Board of the Atlanta Vietnam Veterans Business Association. Judge Bedford was an Adjunct Faculty Member of the Georgia State University School of Law, 1986-1987, and a member of the Emory University School of Law National Institute of Trial Advocacy and the Atlanta Bar Association Institute of Trial Advocacy. Further, he is a trained mediator with the Justice Center of Atlanta and Resolution Resources, Inc. He has spoken at various CLE and professional seminars and to numerous community service organizations.[2]
Noteworthy cases
Detainment of Paul Howard
On March 31, 2006, Judge Bedford ordered District Attorney Paul Howard handcuffed and detained in a holding cell. Mr. Howard's actions in resisting detainment caused severe injury to the shoulder of Fulton County Deputy Levoular Denise McCray. Ms. McCray later sued Mr. Howard for the incident and for subsequent statements made by Mr. Howard about her. The facts of the incident are set forth in the appeal of Ms. McCray's case, denominated McCray v. Howard, No. 08-11073, 11th Cir., 2008:
"On March 31, 2006, McCray was serving as a courtroom deputy for a Fulton County Superior Court Judge ("the Judge"). After the jury returned a not-guilty verdict in a criminal trial, the Judge allowed the attorneys to ask the jury questions. Defendant Howard, who was not the attorney handling the criminal case, entered the Judge's courtroom and insisted on talking to the jury. The Judge asked Howard to stop questioning the jury because he was not one of the attorneys handling the case, but Howard ignored the Judge and continued. After warning Howard at least three times, the Judge ordered that Howard be removed from the courtroom.
McCray and another officer asked Howard to leave, but he again refused. According to McCray, Howard "resisted being removed from the courtroom waiving his arms and attempting to fight off the Plaintiff's attempts to remove him from the courtroom and even locked his body rigid to the low rail separating the public." In the course of resisting, Howard "railed that he was the District Attorney of Fulton County" and struck McCray on her shoulder and chest.
Howard eventually was placed in handcuffs and removed from the courtroom to an adjacent detention area. When the handcuffs were removed, Howard "lunged aggressively toward [McCray] but was restrained by another deputy." Howard could have exited the detention area through another adjacent courtroom, but "screamed" that he would only leave through the Judge's courtroom. Howard then "banged loudly" on the door to the Judge's courtroom."[3]
According to Ms. McCray's attorneys, Mr. Howard assaulted her a second time while in a holding room after he was removed from the courtroom.[4]
Bob Barr (the 2008 presidential nominee of the Libertarian Party) criticized Judge Bedford, saying, "The recent incident in Fulton County Superior Court when Judge T. Jackson Bedford ordered District Attorney Paul Howard handcuffed and detained in a holding cell is not only unseemly and bordering on bizarre, but also highly corrosive of the respect for the law and for our judicial process that is essential to the proper functioning of civil society."[5]
Barr writes that:
- Bedford suppressed an incriminating statement by a defendant charged with a violent murder over the objections of the assistant district attorney trying the case on Howard's behalf.
- The judge, in refusing to allow the DA's office to appeal his ruling (as is allowed), berated Howard for questioning the court's decision.
- Bedford tried to prohibit the district attorney himself from speaking with jurors, insisting that only the assistant district attorney who actually tried the case could do so.
- Employing the power of sheriff's deputies to forcibly handcuff and detain an elected district attorney for doing nothing more than what he not only is allowed to do, but essentially is obligated to do, raises serious questions about personal judicial power that truly must be addressed by higher and more temperate authorities.
In spite of Barr's comments, the fact remains that Judge Bedford was in the process of allowing the Assistant District Attorney who tried the case to interview jurors when the proceedings were interrupted by Mr. Howard.[6]
Rules against Friends of Piedmont Park
In 2008, Bedford ruled that Friends of Piedmont Park, their lawyers and activist Doug Abramson must pay legal fees to the Atlanta Botanical Garden because two of the group's five claims in a lawsuit challenging the $25 million deck were deemed groundless.[7]
Strikes down voter ID bill
In 2006, Bedford struck down Georgia's new voter ID law, writing:
"The 2006 law requiring a photo ID as the exclusive means of proving one's identity at the polls and thereby making the possession of an approved form of photo ID a prerequisite to voting in person and having one's ballot counted violates the plain terms of the Georgia Constitution."[8]
External links
Footnotes
