Bringing you up to speed . . .
By Scott White
Wooodford Sun Staff
One of the interesting things about writing an occasional column is that the issue is ongoing. As the columnist, I try to advocate, educate or raise questions about a particular matter impacting the community.
So, as time progresses, these “issues” change. They are resolved, or not, or they become different. So, let me take this opportunity to bring you up to speed on two of them.
A few weeks ago, I wrote about the attempts of the Kentucky House of Representatives to impeach Fayette Circuit Judge Julia Goodman. The basis was six cases she had presided over in which the local prosecutor didn’t like the results, or a party to civil litigation didn’t like the outcome. In each, there were unsubstantiated claims of bias and essentially rude behavior.
My view is that this was an improper way to hold a judge accountable since there was no evidence of criminal or quasi-criminal conduct on the part of Goodman. Instead, the prosecutor and unsuccessful litigants could appeal her decision to a higher court or file a complaint with the Judicial Conduct Commission, which is empowered to deal with just those types of alleged non-criminal misconduct by a judge.
By side-stepping those processes and seeking to impeach, the House was politicizing the process, depriving Goodman of the ability to defend herself and violating the Constitution’s fundamental separation of powers framework. Setting aside the chilling impact of attacking elected judges in this way, it affected us here in Woodford County because a similar impeachment process has been initiated against our Kentucky Supreme Court member, Justice Pamela Goodwine.
Well, since my column, Goodman has been impeached by the House and a trial has been scheduled to begin on April 6 in the Kentucky Senate, and the matter is now before the Kentucky Supreme Court on a petition to stop the process on constitutional grounds.
But, two days ago, Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd entered an order stopping the impeachment because the claims made against Goodman do not set forth the necessary facts to support a finding that Goodman committed a “misdemeanor,” which is required by the Kentucky Constitution for a public official to be expelled from office. Assuming the Kentucky Supreme Court agree with this analysis, it will also bring to an end the impeachment proceedings against Justice Goodwine.
It is heartening to know that the rule of law, in this context, is still in effect in Kentucky and that our elected judges do not have to look over their shoulders.
The other item is heartening news for the Woodford County Community Remembrance Coalition, which is working to educate the community of the lynchings that took place in Woodford County, with one of the goals being the erection of an Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) memorial at the Woodford County Courthouse annex – the location of the old courthouse from where Richard James, the lynching victim in 1921 was taken with the acquiescence of the county jailer.
Last week, a citizen coalition in Montgomery County (Mount Sterling) succeeded and celebrated the placement of a lynching memorial for James Mitchell, who was taken from the Mt. Sterling jail and hanged from a railroad trestle. Sadly, public officials there did not cooperate in the project, so the memorial was not placed in the preferred location, but it does stand to call for the community to accept its history so it can move forward towards equal justice.
As reported in the Lexington Herald-Leader, Valerie Scott, who chairs the Montgomery County Community Remembrance Coalition, said for years people were too afraid to even talk about this ugly chapter of their county’s history, though it was well-known and it happened in the 1880s. “We need to remember James. Today, I feel like he is getting his justice,” she told the Herald-Leader.
The Woodford County Community Remembrance Coalition, of which the Sun is a member, is working towards the same goal. Unlike Montgomery County, Woodford County Judge-Executive James Kay and the Kentucky Administrative Office of the Courts are on board with placing the memorial here on county owned land when the process has been completed, and EJI has approved the installation.
What all of us can do is continue to attend the public teaching events being held by the Coalition’s leaders, Micah Lynn and Milan Bush, at the Woodford County Library so we, as a community, are able to accept all of our past and move towards reconciliation where racial justice can blossom.
I hope to see everyone at the next teach-in on Sunday, April 26, at 2 p.m., at the Woodford County Library, where we will learn about the other known Woodford County lynching victim, Rev. John Henderson.