Joe Brown (judge)

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Judge Joe Brown was born July 5, 1947 in Washington, DC and raised in Los Angeles, CA. He earned a bachelors in political science and a Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree at UCLA, before moving to Memphis, Tennessee in 1974.

Joe Brown became the first African American prosecutor in the City of Memphis. He would later open his own law practice before becoming a Judge on the State Criminal Court of Shelby County, Tennessee.

Brown was thrust into the national spotlight while presiding over James Earl Ray's last appeal for Ray's conviction for the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., and caught the attention of the producers of Judge Judy. The syndicated Judge Joe Brown show premiered in 1998. The series is syndicated by CBS Paramount Domestic Television (which already merged with King World Productions to form CBS Television Distribution), and it may be found on network television stations in the United States during daytime programming.

Notable among his many guests, popular musicians Coolio and Ike Turner were each a litigant on the Judge Joe Brown show.

Judge Brown's television program has no real judicial power sanctioned by any state or government. The television program acts as an agreed-upon arbitration in place of a small claims court date.^{[citation needed]} The producers maintain the pretense of a civil courtroom. The program also features a reporter: Jacque Kessler, and a bailiff: "Miss Holly" Evans (1998 to 2006) and "Miss Sonia" Montejano (2006 to present).

Brown married Deborah Herron in December 2001 in Oxnard, CA.

Brown is a member of Alpha Phi Alpha, the first intercollegiate Greek-letter fraternity established for African Americans. [1]

Cynthia McKinney wrote in CounterPunch on September 13, 2002 that Joe Brown told her and the Congressional Black Caucus unequivocally that the so-called murder rifle was NOT the weapon that killed Dr. King ^[1]