STATE APPEALS COURT CONVENES IN JACKSON

JACKSON -- For the first time in 125 years, a state appeals court will hear cases in the Cape Girardeau County Courthouse in Jackson.

The Missouri Court of Appeals Eastern District will hear eight cases being appealed from Cape Girardeau and Perry counties on May 16. Most are civil cases.

The cases will be heard by three-judge panels. Sessions will be held at 9 a.m., 10:45 a.m., and 1:30 p.m.

The sessions are open to the public. Jackson High School students are scheduled to observe the hearings, and participate in a question-and-answer session with the judges when the docket is completed.

Chief Judge Mary Russell and judges Mary K. Hoff, Sherri Sullivan, Paul Simon, William Crandall Jr., Lawrence Mooney, Gary Gaertner, Robert Dowd Jr. and James Dowd are scheduled to hear the cases.

Fourteen judges sit on the Eastern District appeals court, which is based in St. Louis. The judges are appointed by the governor to 12-year terms and continue to serve subsequent terms if retained by voters.

Russell, who has served on the court since 1995, said the judges aren't limited to hearing oral arguments in St. Louis.

"Although we normally hold court in downtown St. Louis, we try to hold sessions throughout our 25-county district on the eastern side of Missouri as a matter of convenience for parties and their attorneys from those areas," she said.

"We also feel it's important to bring the court closer to the public so they can see first-hand how we hear cases," she said.

The judges are scheduled to meet with reporters at 8:30 a.m. in the large, third-floor courtroom prior to the start of court.

The court made history last November when it met for the first time at Southeast Missouri State University. It marked the first time in the court's history that it had met at an undergraduate school.

More than 100 students in the university's political science and criminal justice classes witnessed at least part of the court's morning sessions. Dempster Hall's Glenn Auditorium was turned into a makeshift courtroom for the occasion.

In the past, appellate court judges have heard cases at the Common Pleas Courthouse in Cape Girardeau.