Circuit Court records - CLPL

The Circuit Court in Mississippi tries both felony criminal cases and civil actions cases. The Circuit Court archival records at the Columbus-Lowndes Public Library System in Columbus are thus divided between criminal and civil cases. These cases are from the Mississippi Circuit Court State Criminal Cases for Lowndes County.

The Circuit Court was established when the state was admitted to the Union in 1817. The state constitution established a court system consisting of a Circuit Court, Chancery Court, Court of Probate, and a Justice of the Peace. The various courts were governed by rules set forth by the state Supreme Court. The Circuit Courts were required to sit at least twice a year in each county.

In 1857, all Mississippi Chancery Courts were abolished, and probate cases transferred to the Circuit Courts.

In 1861, all judicial decisions were suspended until after the American Civil War (1861-1865). The state constitution of 1868, however, reestablished separate Circuit and Chancery Courts.

As of 2022, Mississippi has twenty-two Circuit Court Districts with forty-nine judges. Lowndes County is in the sixteenth. Appeals from the Circuit Courts are to the Mississippi Supreme Court.

The Circuit Court State Criminal case files include a variety of original records pertaining to that specific case. Records may include the following: orders, summonses, writs, a list of jurors, letters of testimony by witnesses, testimony transcripts, pardons by state officials, motions, jury instructions, a return on capias, bail bonds, coroner’s inquests, verdicts, and more. Not every document has survived and the number in each case file will vary.

The documents will often indicate the location of where the case was recorded in the Circuit Court of Lowndes County Minute Record Books. The notation will be written as “Recorded in Book […] Page […]” or an abbreviation of such. This refers to the Minute book and page number where each document was transcribed, more information noted, and the case decision recorded.

The Circuit Court State Criminal Cases for Lowndes County were treated, conserved, and digitized by the Northeast Document Conservation Center as part of the National Historical Publications and Records Commission Grant through the National Archives and Records Administration in 2020.