Joseph Blakeney Brown Jr. (born July 5, 1947), known as Judge Joe
Brown, is an American lawyer and television personality. He is a
former Shelby County, Tennessee, Criminal Court judge and a former
arbiter of the arbitration-based reality court show Judge Joe
Brown.Raised in the Crenshaw District of Los Angeles, Brown graduated
as valedictorian at Dorsey High School, then in 1969 earned a
bachelor's degree in political science and in 1973 a Juris Doctor
(J.D.) degree at UCLA. While attending law school, Brown worked as a
substitute teacher. He is a member of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity.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 of Ray's conviction for the assassination of Martin Luther King
Jr. Brown was removed from the reopened investigation of King's murder
due to alleged biasâ€"former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney of Georgia
wrote that Brown told her and the Congressional Black Caucus,
unequivocally, that the so-called murder rifle was not the weapon that
killed Martin Luther King Jr. It was during this time that Judge Brown
caught the attention of the producers of Judge Judy.
Brown, is an American lawyer and television personality. He is a
former Shelby County, Tennessee, Criminal Court judge and a former
arbiter of the arbitration-based reality court show Judge Joe
Brown.Raised in the Crenshaw District of Los Angeles, Brown graduated
as valedictorian at Dorsey High School, then in 1969 earned a
bachelor's degree in political science and in 1973 a Juris Doctor
(J.D.) degree at UCLA. While attending law school, Brown worked as a
substitute teacher. He is a member of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity.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 of Ray's conviction for the assassination of Martin Luther King
Jr. Brown was removed from the reopened investigation of King's murder
due to alleged biasâ€"former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney of Georgia
wrote that Brown told her and the Congressional Black Caucus,
unequivocally, that the so-called murder rifle was not the weapon that
killed Martin Luther King Jr. It was during this time that Judge Brown
caught the attention of the producers of Judge Judy.
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