State Supreme Court Chief Justice Carol W. Hunstein delivered the high court’s annual State of the Judiciary address this morning before both chambers of the Legislature.

Her speech called for legislative support of proposed criminal justice reform efforts and the need for increased judicial funding. (Read the address here.)

Several Republican lawyer legislators later backed her message.

“I appreciated and wholeheartedly agree with the chief’s point that the judicial branch as a whole (which accounts for less than one percent of the entire state budget) has been able to deliver on its commitments to the people, even in the wake of funding cuts related to the economic recession. I’m hopeful that we will be able to slowly but surely restore those cuts over time where prudent to do so,” said Rep. Rich Golick, R-Smyrna. Golick is chairman of the House Judiciary Non-Civil Committee.

Sen. Bill Hamrick, R-Carrollton, who say with Hunstein on the Special Council for Criminal Justice Reform said, the state needs “to get the nonviolent offenders out from behind bars and focus on true rehabilitation rather than just carrying out the sentence. By revising our probation and supervision process into one that removes low-risk offenders who have met all obligations, we will be able to shift our resources towards high risk offenders. The ultimate goal is to transform these people into active, contributing members of society.”

Hamrick also indicated he supports efforts to spare the judiciary’s budget.

“With such a small percentage of our state budget allocated to the judicial process, we cannot sustain the growth our criminal justice system is currently facing,” he said. “It is imperative that our state makes choices that acknowledge positive progression with low-risk prisoners, without compromising public safety, in order to control costs.”

Read tomorrow’s Daily Report for more details of the State of the Judiciary and legislative response. Or online tonight.

The Savannah Morning News’ website says that that Chatham County Superior Court Judge Michael Karpf became the chief judge today and told a packed courtroom that his first priority will be the renovation of the Montgomery Street courthouse and construction of a new trial court building, according to Savannahnow.com.

Karpf succeeds Chief Judge Perry Brannen Jr., who took senior status this month after 32 years on the bench.

We have pictures and video of Judge Michael Boggs of Blackshear being sworn in today to the Georgia Court of Appeals by Governor Deal. Find that on the Daily Report’s Facebook page.

Gov. Nathan Deal is expected to swear in tomorrow his first appellate court appointee, Michael P. Boggs.

The ceremony is scheduled for 11 a.m. tomorrow in the state House of Representatives chamber, according to Boggs’ office. Deal on Dec. 20 appointed Boggs, a Superior Court judge in the six-county Waycross Judicial Circuit since 2004, to replace retiring Judge J.D. Smith of the state Court of Appeals.

The state judicial disciplinary agency has  issued a private reprimand to a Monroe County magistrate judge in connection with his arrest last June and his subsequent guilty plea to driving under the influence of alcohol.

The Judicial Qualifications Commission reprimanded Jeffery M. Davis, chief judge of the Monroe County Magistrate Court and a Forsyth Municipal Court judge, after he notified the JQC of his June 3 arrest by the Bibb County sheriff, according to a JQC report filed with the Supreme Court of Georgia today.

On June 10, Davis entered a guilty plea  in Bibb County State Court and was sentenced to 12 months probation, an $800 fine and 24 hours in jail, according to the JQC report.  Davis was also ordered to attend a DUI/risk reduction course and perform 40 hours of community service, the JQC report said.

The day after his arrest, Davis resigned his post as Forsyth’s municipal court judge, explaining that he could not in good conscience continue to preside over DUI cases, according to the JQC report. On the day he entered his guilty plea, Davis also called a news conference where he publicly accepted responsibility for his actions, according to the report.

Davis – who is not related to JQC Director Jeffrey R. Davis – later met with the JQC to discuss the arrest and what action the disciplinary agency might take. While the JQC case was pending, the magistrate judge, according to the report, “complied with every request” made by the commission.

The JQC determined to privately reprimand Davis, making only the fact of the reprimand, but not its specific contents, public. It stated that the disposition “is fair and just for all concerned.”  In doing so, the JQC “attempted to balance its responsibility to the public to insure an honorable and independent judiciary with its responsibility to deal fairly with a judge who complied with all requests of the Commission,” according to its report.

The hometown newspaper of the Brunswick Circuit’s chief Superior Court judge, Amanda F. Williams, in an editorial today called on Williams either to resign or step down from the bench temporarily until the judicial ethics charges brought against her by the state Judicial Qualifications Commission have been resolved.

In an unsigned editorial, the Brunswick News suggested that if the JQC ethics charges filed against Williams on Nov. 9 and last Monday are true, “for the sake of the circuit, of justice and of the public, she should resign” or “at the very least, she should remove herself from the bench until allegations made against her… are sorted out, heard and adjudicated.”

The newspaper also suggested that there appears to be  more than a hint of impropriety in some of Williams’ judicial actions.   “Putting someone behind bars in the Glynn County Detention Center for an indefinite period of time and depriving that individual of legal counsel for months, as cited in the state’s case against Judge Williams, goes against the very basic of rights guaranteed every American citizen,” the editorial stated.  “And as far we know, Glynn County is still part of the United States, which means every resident falls under the protection of the U.S. Constitution. Throwing people in jail and denying them due process is something Americans read about occurring in government-controlled third world nations, not in the United States in the 21st century.”

In the wake of new charges the JQC filed on Monday – including an allegation that Williams has allowed John J. Ossick, Jr., a Kingsland attorney who has been representing her before the JQC to continue to represent clients in her court without disclosing her attorney-client relationship with him — the newspaper  suggested that Ossick’s cases be reassigned to another judge.

Retired Muscogee County Superior Court Judge John Henry Land, who served in the Chattahoochee Judicial Circuit for 24 years and was a former member of the Georgia State Senate and a power broker in a political group known as the “fish house gang,” died Wednesday at 93, the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer reported today. His funeral will be Monday at 3 p.m.

Land was also the patriarch of an influential family that includes a federal judge, his nephew, U.S. District Court Judge Clay D. Land, appointed to the Middle District of Georgia seat in 2001 by President George W. Bush.

Reporter Tim Chitwood gives a vivid account of Land’s influence as a stern jurist, quoting the judge himself reacting to the reduction of drug penalties to reduce jail crowding: “As far as I’m concerned, this is a war. There’s nothing wrong in a war with concentration camps.”

Chitwood’s article quotes Gary Parker, a former state senator and an attorney who is African-American talking about how the judge, once a strict segregationist, evolved to change his positions and become Parker’s friend. Chitwood also quotes Tasca Hagler, the first female district attorney in the Chattahoochee Judicial Circuit, talking about how she came to regard his toughness and intimidation in the courtroom to be his method of training young lawyers he respected. Hagler says in Chitwood’s article on Ledger-Enquirer.com: “If Judge Land liked you, he would walk through fire for you. If he did not like you, heaven help you.”

Gov. Nathan Deal’s first appellate appointment is at least a few weeks off.  According to Deal’s executive counsel, W. Ryan Teague, Deal’s interviews of finalists for a spot on the state Court of Appeals are set for Dec. 16.

The Judicial Nominating Commission’s short list of six, released Nov. 15, includes:

• Michael P. Boggs, a Superior Court judge in the Waycross Judicial Circuit;
• Elizabeth L. “Lisa” Branch, a partner at Smith, Gambrell & Russell in Atlanta;
• Donald P. Geary, chief assistant district attorney in DeKalb County;
• John C. Pridgen, chief judge for the Cordele Judicial Circuit Superior Court;
• Mary E. Staley, Superior Court judge in Cobb County; and
• Benjamin W. Studdard III, chief judge of the Henry County State Court.

The search is to fill a vacancy that will be created by the departure of Presiding Judge J.D. Smith, who in September announced plans to retire from the court at the end of this year.

The race for the Gwinnett County Superior Court seat that will be vacated at the end of 2012 by Chief Judge K. Dawson Jackson now will have at least three candidates.

Duluth lawyer Kathryn M. Schrader has confirmed that she will run next year.

Schrader, who operates a private practice, was admitted to the State Bar of Georgia in 1987 and is a member of the family law, general practice and trial law, nonprofit law and tort and insurance law sections. She has served as a part-time Gwinnett County magistrate and an associate municipal judge in Duluth since 2005 and in Sugar Hill since 2007. The Georgia Nominating Commission recommended Schrader for appointment to Gwinnett County Superior Court in 2005 and 2007.

Christopher C. McClurg, a civil litigator from Lawrenceville, and Tracey M. Blasi, a private practitioner in Lawrenceville, announced their candidacies earlier this month.

Jackson’s term ends Dec. 31, 2012.

Gov. Nathan Deal’s Judicial Nominating Commission is taking nominations for three Superior Court openings:

• DeKalb County Superior Court,  where an opening has been created by the resignation of Judge Michael E. Hancock;
• Chatham County Superior Court, where an opening has been created by the resignation of Judge Perry Brannen Jr.; and
• Conasauga Judicial Circuit Superior Court, where an opening on the court that covers Whitfield and Murray counties has been created by the resignation of Judge Robert B. Adams.

The details can be found here, and all nominations are due Dec. 5. Would-be judges can nominate themselves. Nominations should be sent by letter addressed to Judicial Nominating Commission, c/o Dana McGuire, 600 Peachtree, N.E., Suite 5200, Atlanta, GA  30308-2216, by fax to (404) 962-6919 or by email c/o dana.mcguire@troutmansanders.com).

Nominees will be sent an application package due back to the JNC Dec. 19, and the commission says it will interview applicants the week of Jan. 9.