NATCHEZ, Miss. – Two candidates are running to be elected Adams County Justice Court judge for the northern district: appointed incumbent Shameca Collins and former court clerk Verna Johnson.
The special election will be Nov. 4. Collins, a former district attorney, was appointed judge by Adams County supervisors last October to replace Audrey Minor, who resigned a year ago citing health problems.
Collins and Johnson will be on a special-election ballot just for north Adams County voters to select the one to serve the rest of the judicial term, which runs through 2027. Adams County’s other Justice Court judge is Danny Barber, who was elected in 2023 by southern district voters.
Minor was first elected Adams County Justice Court judge in 2019 and again in 2023. She resigned in September 2024 amid published reports she was being sued by Johnson, a Justice Court clerk, and was the subject of a complaint filed with the Mississippi Commission on Judicial Performance.
Collins was unseated in 2023 as Adams County’s district attorney when she lost her second-term reelection bid to Tim Cotton.
Justice Court judges – who are not required to have law degrees – consider civil cases involving amounts of $3,500 or less, misdemeanor criminal cases and traffic-related cases that occur outside a municipality. They also conduct bond hearings and preliminary hearings in felony criminal cases, and they can issue search warrants.
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