Mingo County West Virginia judge arrested on federal charge

Rickey Stokes

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Posted by: RStokes
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Date: Aug 15 2013 4:20 PM

ALABAMA:   In Alabama, a Circuit Judge is the only person which can send a person to the penitentiary. No other Judge in the state, has the power to sentence a person to prison or death penalty. Not even the Alabama Supreme Court Justices.

A District Court Judge can sentence you to a term of imprisonment in the county jail. A Municipal Court Judge can sentence a person to the municipal jail for a period of one year.

However, both a sentence by a Municipal Court Judge or District Court Judge, a person can appeal to a jury trial of 12 persons in Circuit Court.

Never sign an appeal to a trial by judge, always appeal a trial by jury. You can later waive the jury trial, but if you appeal to trial by Judge, you can not decide a trial by jury later. ( NOTE: Not giving legal advise, just what legal counsel has explained to clients in my presence before.) 

The Alabama Supreme Court can affirm a conviction, or they can overturn a conviction, or send the case back to the Circuit Court for correction of an issue. But the Supreme Court Justices ( or in some instances "injustices") can not sentence you to prison or death.

A WEST VIRGINIA JUDGE GETS ARRESTED FOR ABUSE OF POWER

Mingo County Circuit Judge Michael Thornsbury was arrested Thursday after federal authorities allege he targeted his ex-lover’s husband, using his position on the bench to manipulate criminal charges against the man.

The indictment returned Wednesday by a federal grand jury in Charleston charges Thornsbury with conspiring to violate the constitutional rights of his former secretary’s husband, identified in the indictment as R.W.

Prosecutors allege Thornsbury, the county’s only circuit judge, put his business partner in charge of a Mingo grand jury, plotted to plant drugs on R.W. and tried to get the man sent to jail.

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