Hickman named chancery judge

BY DALE ELLIS     23 Dec 2000

Staff Writer

The governor's office has announced that former Arkansas Supreme Court Justice Darrell Hickman of Pangburn has been appointed by Governor Mike Huckabee as chancery judge of the 17th Judicial District.

That seat is being vacated by Jim Hannah, who was elected November 7 to the Arkansas Supreme Court. Hickman will serve out the remainder of Hannah's term, which expires in December 2001.

Hickman graduated from Searcy High School in 1952, then went on to attend Harding University and the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville from 1952-55. He received his law degree from the University of Arkansas Law School in 1958.

He enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1958, attended officer candidate school and became a lieutenant. In 1964, after resigning his commission, Hickman returned to Searcy and opened a law office.

He served as a deputy prosecuting attorney for White and Woodruff counties and as city attorney for Augusta. In 1972, Hickman was elected as a chancery judge for Pulaski, White, Lonoke and Prairie counties. He was elected top the Arkansas Supreme Court in 1976, from which he retired in 1990.

In September 1992, Hickman was appointed to fill the unexpired term of Circuit Judge Cecil Tedder after Tedder died in office. Since that term expired in 1994, Hickman has been appointed as special judge in individual cases.

Reached at his Pangburn home Friday, Hickman said that the chancery court position that he has been appointed to will be changing in July since the passage of Amendment 3 in November.

That amendment will put an end to partisan judgeship elections and merged all chancery, probate and juvenile courts into the circuit court system.

That means that in July, the position will evolve into a circuit judgeship with jurisdiction in all legal matters in the 17th Judicial District. "That's my understanding of it, anyway," said Hickman.

He said that he did not seek the position, that he was sought out back when Hannah announced his intention to seek election to the state supreme court.

"The lawyers of the White County Bar Association approached me and asked me if I would be willing to fill Hannah's unexpired term if he were to be elected," Hickman said. "I told them that if he were indeed elected, I would be willing."

Asked if he would consider running for another term when this one expires, Hickman was emphatic. "No," he said. "That is my intention, and I think that it was the intention of those who supported me."

Once he takes office, Hickman will hold court in the Wilber D. Mills Courts Building at 311 Arch Street (the old Post Office building) and twice a month he will travel to Prairie County.

He will hold court sessions for the Northern District at Des Arc and for the Southern District at DeValls Bluff.

  
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