Valiant Cross Academy Visits the Middle District

On November 10, the Alabama Middle District hosted the Valiant Cross Academy. Valiant Cross Academy is an all-male private school located in the heart of downtown Montgomery, Alabama, on Dexter Avenue, and the sixth and seventh grade scholars that came to our court spent time in historic courtroom 2FMJ, with Senior District Judge Myron H. Thompson before observing sentencings in Courtroom 2F, presided by District Judge L. Scott Coogler.

While with Judge Thompson, the young men were given an introduction to the federal court system, and heard briefly from Mr. Bradley White, United States Probation Officer, Mr. J.  Matthew Williams, of The Anderson Law Firm, and Mr. Luis V. Franklin, Chief Assistant U.S. Attorney, on their roles in the federal process as probation officer, defense counsel, and government counsel, respectively.

Judge Thompson spoke with the youth first, and in their conversation, he pointed out that some of the young men could very well be sitting in the very spots that Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, Jr. sat in for their court appearances. After the sentencings, the young men ate lunch in the Frank M. Johnson Jr library, where they again were able to spend time with Judge Thompson, Mr. Williams, and Mr. Franklin.