Scott Jackson Crichton (born June 1, 1954) is a justice of the

Louisiana Supreme Court The Supreme Court of Louisiana (french: Cour suprême de Louisiane) is the highest court and court of last resort in the U.S. state of Louisiana. The modern Supreme Court, composed of seven justices, meets in the French Quarter of New Orl ...

. He was a judge of the

Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is bord ...

1st Judicial District Court in

Shreveport Shreveport ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Louisiana. It is the third most populous city in Louisiana after New Orleans and Baton Rouge, respectively. The Shreveport–Bossier City metropolitan area, with a population of 393,406 in 2020, is ...

from 1991 to 2014. Crichton was elected to the district court in 1990 as a Democrat. In 2014, he ran without opposition to succeed the retiring Justice

Jeffrey P. Victory Jeffrey P. Victory (born January 29, 1946) is a former associate justice of the Louisiana Supreme Court. Life and career Victory was born in Shreveport, Louisiana. He attended Centenary College of Louisiana and Tulane University Law School. ...

for the District 2 seat on the seven-member state Supreme Court. The

nonpartisan blanket primary A nonpartisan blanket primary is a primary election in which all candidates for the same elected office run against each other at once, regardless of the political party. Partisan elections are, on the other hand, segregated by political party. ...

for the position was held on November 4, 2014 in eleven northwest Louisiana parishes.

Background

Crichton is the son of Thomas Crichton, III (1917–1989), who though born in Monroe was a businessman-landholder descended from a pioneer family in

Minden Minden () is a middle-sized town in the very north-east of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, the greatest town between Bielefeld and Hanover. It is the capital of the district (''Kreis'') of Minden-Lübbecke, which is part of the region of De ...

in Webster Parish east of Shreveport. His mother, the former Mary Murff (1919–1983), was a native of Shreveport; her grandfather was a district court judge in 1906. Crichton himself was born in Shreveport but attended school for the first eight years in Minden. For high school, he was sent to the

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, the Webb School in Bell Buckle in Bedford County near Shelbyville in middle

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. The school then had an enrollment of only two hundred but with a demanding curriculum, honor code, and required obstacle courses including the development of survival skills. After graduation from the Webb School, Crichton attended

Louisiana State University Louisiana State University (officially Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as LSU) is a public land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The university was founded in 1860 n ...

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, from which he received his undergraduate degree in 1976. In 1980, he received his

Juris Doctor The Juris Doctor (J.D. or JD), also known as Doctor of Jurisprudence (J.D., JD, D.Jur., or DJur), is a graduate-entry professional degree in law and one of several Doctor of Law degrees. The J.D. is the standard degree obtained to practice l ...

degree from the Louisiana State University Law Center. He and his wife, the former Susan "Susie" Simonton (born November 23, 1957), whom he married c. 1986, have two sons, Stuart Jackson Crichton (a 2013 LSU Law school graduate) and Sam Crichton (a 2014 LSU Law school graduate). Since 1985, the judge has been a member of St. Mark's Episcopal Cathedral in Shreveport.

Legal career

More than five hundred people attended Crichton's campaign kickoff party on April 29, 2013, at Ernest's Orleans Restaurant in Shreveport. Among those in attendance were fellow judges and law enforcement officials from around the state. Had he drawn an opponent, Crichton's campaign was to have been co-managed by his wife Susie and Carolyn Prator, the wife of Crichton's friend, Caddo Parish Sheriff Steve Prator.Adam Duvernay, "Caddo District Judge Scott Crichton wants to be Justice Crichton", '' Shreveport Times'', May 1, 2013 In 2017, Crichton ruled that a prisoner being interrogated by police who said "just me a lawyer dog" did not actually request a lawyer, because the request was ambiguous as to whether the prison was requesting a lawyer or a dog."A defendant asked the police to 'get me a lawyer, dog,' and was ignored. A judge ruled he could have wanted a litigious canine."
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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Crichton, Scott 1954 births Living people American Episcopalians Louisiana Democrats Louisiana lawyers Louisiana state court judges Louisiana State University alumni Louisiana State University Law Center alumni Justices of the Louisiana Supreme Court Politicians from Minden, Louisiana Politicians from Shreveport, Louisiana Webb School (Bell Buckle, Tennessee) alumni 20th-century American judges 21st-century American judges