Federal court in Meridian among those set to close

Published 5:40 pm Tuesday, September 11, 2012

    Meridian’s only federal courtroom — the site of historical civil rights cases more than four decades ago — will close.    

    Meridian’s federal court is among six in the South that will close in the next few years in a cost-cutting measure expected to save $1 million a year in rent.

    The decision to close the federal courthouses was announced Tuesday by the Supreme Court of the Judicial Conference, the federal judiciary’s policy-making arm led by Chief Justice John Roberts.

    “This is part of an aggressive cost containment effort because the money to operate the courts has been frozen by Congress the past three years,” said David Sellers, a federal courts spokesman.

    Meridian’s federal courtroom, located on the second floor of the U.S. Post Office building in downtown Meridian is slated to be among the first to go. No specific time frame for the closing has been made, however.

    J. T. Noblin, who is the clerk of U.S. District Court, Southern District of Mississippi in Jackson, said Tuesday afternoon he has received no information about when the Meridian courthouse will be closed.

    “The Meridian courthouse has no staff and it is not used very often,” Noblin said. “Mostly it is used by the U.S. Attorney’s Office, along with the occasional federal civil or criminal proceeding.”

    Other federal courthouses to be closed are located in Gadsen, Ala.; Pikeville, Ky.; Wilkesboro, N.C.; Beaufort, S.C.; and Amarillo, Texas.

    Sellers said the annual rent for the Meridian courthouse is about $115,000.

    Sellers didn’t know where federal court proceedings for Lauderdale County residents would take place in the future. He said those decisions would be made at a later date.

    “It is up to the other federal courts, those in Jackson and Hattiesburg, as to where and when the proceedings would be held,” Sellers said.

    None of the facilities to be closed has a sitting judge. Instead, judges travel from other cities to those courthouses as needed.

    The six were chosen from among 60 courthouses in 29 states. There are 674 federal courthouses around the country, according to Sellers.

    Meridian’s federal court has handled many high profile cases over the years, including historical civil rights cases in the 1960s.

    Noblin remembers those proceedings.

    “I was just out of law school when that was going on,” Noblin said.

    On June 16, 1964, Michael Schwerner, who along with Andrew Goodman and James Chaney had come to rural Neshoba County community of Longdale to inspect a black church that had been burned to the ground, were killed. Their bodies were discovered 45 days later buried in an earthen dam.

    On October 7, 1967 in the Meridian courtroom of Judge William Cox the trial began. A jury of seven white men and five white women, ranging in ages from 34 to 67, was selected. On the morning of October 20, 1967, the jury returned with its verdict. Seven defendants, mostly from Lauderdale County, were convicted.

    Seven men, mostly from Neshoba County, were acquitted.