The Recorder's Court, in Detroit, Michigan was a state court of limited jurisdiction which had, for most of its history, exclusive jurisdiction over traffic and ordinance matters, and over all felony cases committed in the City of Detroit. Its jurisdiction did not extend to civil suits.
It was merged into the Wayne County Circuit Court, the general jurisdiction court in Wayne County, following the pattern of the rest of the state of Michigan in October 1997. [1] [2]
It traces its roots to the Mayor's Court in Detroit, formed in 1824. To clarify, Detroit Recorders' Court was one of the oldest courts of record in the U.S.A. [3]
This municipal court probably[ original research? ] owed its name to the fact that from 1827 until 1857, the official name of the City of Detroit was "The Mayor, Recorder and Alderman of Detroit." [4] A "Recorder" is the title of a judicial officer in England and Wales and some other common law jurisdictions, such as the former office "Recorder of New York City".
Within its 173-year history, the Ossian Sweet family murder trials—defended by Clarence Darrow and presided over by Judge Frank Murphy (who became Mayor of Detroit, Governor of Michigan, the last Governor-General of the Philippines and the first High Commissioner of the Philippines, United States Attorney General, and United States Supreme Court Associate Justice) is arguably the most famous case tried there.
The trials are memorialized in two official Michigan Historical Markers:
Additionally, there is a "Michigan Legal Milestones". [6] plaque (erected by the State Bar of Michigan in the first floor of the Frank Murphy Hall of Justice in Detroit.
Kevin Boyle's chronicle, Arc of Justice: A Saga of Race, Civil Rights, and Murder in the Jazz Age was adapted into a play. Mr. Boyle was honored by the Detroit City Council for The Sweet Trials. [7] *The Sweet Trials: Malice Aforethought is a play written by Arthur Beer, based on the trials of Ossian and Henry Sweet, and derived from Kevin Boyle's Arc of Justice . [8]
The merger of the Recorder's court and Wayne County (Third Judicial) Circuit Court was not without controversy. It was made pursuant to a 1997 state law which also consolidated the state's probate courts into a family court, a far less controversial change. A lawsuit brought by Richard Kuhn opposed the merger, but did not prevail.
Prior to the merger, "judges of Recorder's Court were elected from Detroit, so unsurprisingly, most of them were African-American. Then Detroit Recorder's Court was abolished — or rather, it was merged with Wayne County Circuit Court. The Recorder's Court judges became Circuit Court judges, and have to run for re-election in Wayne County as a whole, which is predominantly white." [9]
At the time of its merger, and now as reconfigured as a part of the Wayne County Circuit Court, the court has been housed in the Frank Murphy Hall of Justice.
Clarence Seward Darrow was an American lawyer who became famous in the early 20th century for his involvement in the Leopold and Loeb murder trial and the Scopes trial. He was a leading member of the American Civil Liberties Union and a prominent advocate for Georgist economic reform.
William Francis Murphy was an American politician, lawyer, and jurist from Michigan. He was a Democrat who was named to the Supreme Court of the United States in 1940 after a political career that included serving as United States Attorney General, 35th Governor of Michigan, and Mayor of Detroit. He also served as the last Governor-General of the Philippines and the first High Commissioner to the Philippines.
Circuit courts are court systems in several common law jurisdictions. The core concept of circuit courts requires judges to travel to different locales to ensure wide visibility and understanding of cases in a region. More generally, the term may also refer to a court that merely holds trials and other proceedings at a series of multiple locations in some kind of rotation.
The Courts Act 1971 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, the purpose of which was to reform and modernise the courts system of England and Wales.
Nolle prosequi, abbreviated nol or nolle pros, is legal Latin meaning "to be unwilling to pursue". It is a type of prosecutorial discretion in common law, used for prosecutors' declarations that they are voluntarily ending a criminal case before trial or before a verdict is rendered; it is a kind of motion to dismiss and contrasts with an involuntary dismissal.
The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan is the federal district court with jurisdiction over of the eastern half of the Lower Peninsula of the State of Michigan. The Court is based in Detroit, with courthouses also located in Ann Arbor, Bay City, Flint, and Port Huron. The United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit has appellate jurisdiction over the court.
Ossian Sweet was an African-American physician in Detroit, Michigan. He is known for being charged with murder in 1925 after he and his friends used armed self-defense against a hostile white mob protesting after Sweet moved into their neighborhood. Stones were thrown at his house, breaking windows. Shots were fired, and one white man was killed and another wounded. Sweet, his wife, and nine associates at the house were all arrested and charged with murder.
A recorder is a judicial officer in England and Wales and some other common law jurisdictions.
Kevin Boyle is an American author and the William Smith Mason Professor of American History at Northwestern University. His 2004 book, Arc of Justice: A Saga of Race, Civil Rights, and Murder in the Jazz Age, won the National Book Award.
The State Bar of Michigan is the governing body for lawyers in the State of Michigan. Membership is mandatory for attorneys who practice law in Michigan. The organization's mission is to aid in promoting improvements in the administration of justice and advancements in jurisprudence, improving relations between the legal profession and the public, and promoting the interests of the legal profession in Michigan.
Helene N. White is a Senior United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. Previously, she was a judge on the Michigan Court of Appeals.
The Ossian H. Sweet House is a privately owned house located at 2905 Garland Street in Detroit, Michigan. The house was designed by Maurice Herman Finkel, and in 1925 it was bought by its second owner, physician Ossian Sweet, an African American. Soon after he moved in, the house was the site of a confrontation when a white mob of about 1,000 gathered in protest of the Sweet family moving into the formerly all-white neighborhood. Rocks thrown by the mob broke windows, and someone in the house fired out at the mob, killing one man and wounding another. Sweet and ten other persons from the house were arrested for murder.
Ira Waite Jayne (1882-1961) was elected to the Wayne County, Michigan Circuit Court bench in 1915 and served as Chief Judge for 27 years of his 37 years working for the court. He graduated from the University of Michigan in 1905 and from the Detroit College of Law. He was the attorney for The Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Children in Detroit. He developed the boarding home plan replacing orphanages.
Patricia Jean Boyle was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan.
George Clifton Edwards Jr. was a justice of the Michigan Supreme Court and a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.
Arc of Justice: A Saga of Race, Civil Rights, and Murder in the Jazz Age is a 2004 book by historian Kevin Boyle, published by Henry Holt. The book chronicles racism in Detroit during the 1920s Jazz Age through the lens of Ossian Sweet, an African American doctor who moves to Detroit during the great migration. While living in Detroit he eventually moves out of the ghetto and he and his wife move into an all-white middle-class neighborhood. When racist whites attack the Sweets' home, a white man is killed. Sweet and his family are persecuted by the legal system.
The judiciary of Michigan is defined under the Michigan Constitution, law, and regulations as part of the Government of Michigan. The court system consists of the Michigan Supreme Court, the Michigan Court of Appeals as the intermediate appellate court, the circuit courts and district courts as the two primary trial courts, and several administrative courts and specialized courts. The Supreme Court administers all the courts. The Michigan Supreme Court consists of seven members who are elected on non-partisan ballots for staggered eight-year terms, while state appellate court judges are elected to terms of six years and vacancies are filled by an appointment by the governor, and circuit court and district court judges are elected to terms of six years.
Judge George William Crockett III served on the Detroit Recorder's Court from 1976 until 2003. He was known for presiding over the 1993 Malice Green case, and for his father, George Crockett Jr., an influential civil rights activist, congressman and judge who preceded and served with him on the Recorder's Court.
A general election was held in the U.S. state of Michigan on November 8, 2016.
Detroit's Frank Murphy Hall of Justice houses the Criminal Division of the Third Judicial Circuit of Michigan, also known as Wayne County Circuit Court, the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office and formerly housed Detroit Recorder's Court. Located in the Greektown district, the twelve-story Brutalist architecture building, designed by Eberle M. Smith, was completed in 1970 and is named for jurist and politician Frank Murphy, who was a Recorder's Court judge, Mayor of Detroit, Governor of Michigan, United States Attorney General and Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court. As of 2019, the building remained in use, but was slated for demolition as part of area redevelopment when the circuit court moves to a new Wayne County criminal justice campus.