I learned that judges in Mississippi are elected and not required to actually be a lawyer or know the law. The story i saw was about an armed off-duty cop who threatened to kill a man and two children who were trying to catch a loose dog and stepped on his property. He called his cop buddies and told them that he was threatened and the cops arrested the man for aggravated assault. He went to trial and the 30 year old judge who’d never practiced law convicted him. It wasn’t overturned until the news started reporting on the situation and exposed what was going on.