The Honorable George W. Draper III’s direct legal experience will be missed by the Missouri Supreme Court, according to a fellow attorney and former governor.
“He amplified what is an important part of tough on crime, but with a heart,” said Missouri Governor Emeritus Jay Nixon. “That's what was so important when he did his job before.”
Nixon, who currently works as an attorney at the Dowd Bennett law firm, appointed Draper to the state’s high court in October 2011 when he was Missouri’s governor. Draper will retire in August.
“The Honorable George Draper is a guy that came up as a prosecutor, working at different levels of the judiciary, trying cases, and fighting crime as a leading African American prosecutor in the courtroom doing the work,” Nixon told the St. Louis Record. “I have a lot of respect for his capacity.”
After nearly thirty years of judicial service, the Appellate Judicial Commission announced it is accepting applications to fill the vacancy Draper’s retirement will create. The Appellate Judicial Commission is responsible for selecting nominees for vacancies on the Supreme Court, and the Court of Appeals.
The Appellate Judicial Commission is made up of the Chief Justice of the Missouri Supreme Court, three lay members and three attorneys.
“Judge Draper has served at every level of the judiciary,” said Missouri Court of Appeals-Eastern District Judge Kelly Broniec. “He started out as an associate circuit judge, was a circuit judge, an appellate judge, and a Supreme Court judge. So, he definitely has a broad range of experience not only as an attorney but as a judge.”
Draper, a member of the Missouri Bar, the Mound City Bar Association, and the Lawyer’s Association, received his law degree from Howard University in Washington D.C. and subsequently clerked at D.C. Superior Court under Judge Shellie Bowers.
He served in the Office of Circuit Attorney for the City of St. Louis before being appointed an associate circuit judge in 1994, a circuit judge in 1998, and the Missouri Court of Appeals two years later.
Draper's replacement on the Missouri Supreme Court will need to be thoughtful and contemplative, according to Broniec who was recently elected by her peers to be Chief Judge.
“They will need to realize the seriousness of the decisions you have to make," Broniec told the St. Louis Record. "I think promptness is another important quality for judges to have and just being human and realizing the importance of the issue to the parties.”