From a campaign release:
If you were not at the Neshoba County Fair on Thursday, then you missed a great speech by our man Kitch.
In short, he laid out exactly why a change is needed on the Mississippi Supreme Court.
Kitch told a crowd of hundreds of people that he believes the Mississippi Supreme Court under Justice Jim Smith’s leadership is “out of whack”.
“The more I see what our highest court is doing, and the more I hear about the incumbent’s plans for the future, the more I’m convinced a change should be made,” Kitchens said.
Kitchens called into question Smith’s repeated plans to push for an appointed judiciary, saying it would not end corruption but instead would inject even more politics into the system.
“According to his logic, we can stop corruption in the courts by stripping the people of their constitutional right to vote and giving that power to a politician,” Kitchens said. “I say, if we can trust the people to elect our governor, and we can trust the people to elect our Legislature, then we can trust the people to elect our judges.”
Of course, Smith stood up right after Kitch and said he may believe we should have appointed judges, but he won't do anything about it.
Perhaps the promises he made when he became chief justice four years ago and the promises he made back in February were just lies.
Kitchens also pointed out that Smith has gone back on his word to voters about imposing term limits on himself.
After taking away a person’s right to vote for judges, Smith would recommend that judges serve no more than two terms of six years. However, Smith is currently seeking his third term of 8 years – even after saying in two different elections that he would not seek an additional term if elected.
While praising Smith’s personal character, Kitchens questioned whether or not the chief justice’s professional actions were leading the court down the wrong path.
Kitchens gave several examples of how Smith has sat on cases and ruled on behalf of his largest financial backers, despite calls of recusal from attorneys.
Kitchens also pointed to the activist nature of Smith and the court, which has overturned nearly 90 percent of jury verdicts against large corporations where an individual was harmed due to negligence or wrongdoing.
“Now, I’m not talking about frivolous lawsuits,” Kitchens said. “I’m talking about a woman who went into a hospital with a mild case of pneumonia and came out a brain-damaged paraplegic.”
Kitchens regaled the crowd with stories about his childhood when he worked for his father at the family’s grocery business and how he ended up in law school because his dad was fearful of allowing his little brother to go all the way to Ole Miss for college by himself.
Kitchens also talked about some of the more trying times in his life, such as when his 3-year-old son, Dan, battled cancer.
“Cancer is just about the worst word a mother and father can ever hear ... You learn a lot you didn’t know about prayer. And you learn that it works,” Kitchens said. “Dan was 3 then. He’s 34 now, and he practices law with his dad. That makes me mighty proud, and mighty thankful.”
Kitchens also told the story of when he was appointed to defend Byron De La Beckwith in the Medgar Evers case.
“Beckwith was for everything I was against, and against everything I was for,” Kitchens said. “During that trial, my family and I were harassed and threatened by Beckwith’s friends,” Kitchens said his heart sank when the judge told him the news.
“It would have been easier for my family and better for my career if I had come up with an excuse -- come up with a lie -- to tell the judge so that he would have appointed somebody else,” Kitchens said. “But to me, it was more important to do my duty than to take the easy way out.”
To view the entire speech, visit:
http://www.kitchensforjustice.com/2008/07/speech-to-the-neshoba-county-fair/
To download a pdf version of the file, visit:
http://www.kitchensforjustice.com/uploads/neshoba-speech.pdf
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