10 January 2014
Two female judges sit on panel of Missouri Court of Appeals, Southern District for the first time
On Wednesday, January 8, for the first time in the 105 year history of the Court of Appeals, Southern District, two women sat together on a three judge panel. Presiding Judge Nancy Rahmeyer, Judge Mary Sheffield and Chief Judge William Francis heard a criminal case in Springfield which had originated in the Greene County circuit court.
Presiding Judge Nancy Rahmeyer, from Springfield, had been appointed to the southern district in 2001, and is the longest serving judge currently on the southern district. Judge Mary Sheffield, from Rolla, had been a trial judge since 1983, and was appointed in 2012 to the Southern District Court of Appeals, making her the newest addition to the southern district. Chief Judge Francis called it, "an historic moment" in the court's history.
The oral argument on the case was originally scheduled to be heard January 8 at the Marshfield High School, but was cancelled due to inclement weather and was held in Springfield instead.
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Contact: Sandra Skinner, Court Clerk
Missouri Court of Appeals, Southern District
(417) 895-6811