James Downs

Background

Judge Downs is descended from a political family with roots in Rapides Parish in Central Louisiana.

Education

A native of Shreveport, Louisiana, Downs graduated in 1963 from Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, Virginia.

Career

A Democrat, he was appointed to the court in 1983 by then Governor James B. Hunt, the year before Hunt temporarily left the governorship in an unsuccessful campaign against Republican United States. Senator Jesse Helms. After Downs retired from the bench in 2013, he returned to the private practice of law, with an office in his adopted city of Franklin in Macon County. He received his law degree in 1966 from Loyola University College of Law in New Orleans.

He served for two years in the United States Army from 1966 to 1968 and was discharged at the rank of captain.

Judge Downs"s father, J. Earl Downs, an educator-turned-businessman served from 1954 to 1962 as the public safety commissioner, a citywide position in Shreveport under the then city commission government. Earl Downs was unseated in the Democratic primary election by George West. Doctorate"Artois.

Earl and Helen Downs are interred at Woodlawn Cemetery in Franklin. A former educator, Sammy Downs practiced law in Alexandria, Louisiana.

After his original appointment to the court, Judge Downs was elected to the bench four times without opposition.

He presided over numerous capital murder trials and many complex civil trials. According to the Macon County News, he was "known for his fairness and integrity."

Judge Downs retired when he reached the mandatory age of seventy-two on September 1, 2013. In the spring of 2014, he joined the law firm of Sigmon, Clark, Mackie, Hanvey, and Ferrell in Hickory in Catawba County.

He also maintains an office in Franklin.

His practice will concentrate on eminent domain, wills, trusts, property disputes, and employment matters. According to the Asheville Citizen-Times in Asheville, Downs:

By all accounts.. carried out his duties with wisdom and impartiality, running an efficient courtroom and clearing dockets like a judiciary machine.

And he did so with a benevolent iron fist and the occasional bark that let the courtroom know he would suffer no lawyerly shenanigans or failures to follow his procedures. Republican Governor Pat McCrory appointed William H. "Bill" Coward (born 1958), an attorney in Cashiers in Jackson County, to succeed Judge Downs.

Coward is a graduate of Davidson College and the University of North Carolina School of Law.

He has been affiliated with the firm of Coward, Hicks & Siler. Foreign fifteen years, he was the town attorney for Highlands in Macon County. The superior court district includes besides Macon Cherokee, Clay, Graham, and Swain counties.

Membership

Judge Downs"s uncle, C. H. "Sammy" Downs, was a member of both houses of the Louisiana State Legislature in the 1940s and the 1950s and an advisor to Governors Earl Kemp Long and John McKeithen.

Connections

Cousin:

Jam Downs