News

Investiture for Judge Murphey is December 28

December 14, 2010

An investiture ceremony for newly elected Seventeenth Circuit Court Judge Smith Murphey V is scheduled for 11 a.m. Dec. 28 at the Panola County Courthouse in Batesville.

Retiring Senior Circuit Judge Andrew C. Baker will administer the oath of office.

Judge-elect Murphey will fill the judgeship which Judge Baker held for more than 32 years. The district includes DeSoto, Panola, Tallahatchie, Tate and Yalobusha counties.

Murphey is among 17 new circuit, chancery and county court judges statewide who will take the oath of office within the next few days. State trial court judges serve four-year terms.

Murphey, of Batesville, has served as assistant district attorney of the Seventeenth Circuit District for the past 14 years. He is former president of the Mississippi Prosecutors Association and former president of the Prosecutors Section of the Mississippi Bar. He has taught trial techniques and constitutional law to prosecutors from other states for the National Advocacy Center and the National District Attorneys Association. He has served as an instructor in constitutional law for police cadets at the Mississippi Law Enforcement Officers Training Academy. He has been a member of the Project Safe Childhood Task Force, which was organized by the U.S. Department of Justice to fight internet predators. He was a founding member of two multi-disciplinary task forces on child abuse.

He has served on the Mississippi Board of Bar Admissions for the past two years. He is a Mississippi Bar Alternative Dispute Resolution mediator and a member of the Alternative Dispute Resolution Panel of Neutrals for the U.S. District Court.

Before he began his career as a prosecutor, Murphey served for two years as a law clerk for former Mississippi Supreme Court Justice James L. Roberts Jr.

Murphey earned a Bachelor’s Degree in business administration from the University of Mississippi and a law degree from Mississippi College School of Law.

Murphey is married to Carole Murphey, who is a staff attorney at the Mississippi Judicial College at the University of Mississippi. The Murpheys have three children.

Murphey is a member of the Board of Directors of the Batesville Rotary Club, a member of the Panola Partnership, and a volunteer at the Panola Food Pantry. He is a lifetime member of the National Rifle Association.

Murphey has served as a deacon and is currently an elder of the Batesville Presbyterian Church.

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