FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Monday, July 26, 2004

GOVERNOR HALEY BARBOUR FILLS COURT OF APPEALS VACANCY

(Jackson, Miss.) - Governor Haley Barbour today announced his appointment to the Mississippi Court of Appeals (District 1). Donna M. Barnes, of Tupelo, will serve in former Chief Judge Roger McMillin's post due to his retirement effective April 30, 2004. Barnes was administered the Oath of Office by Judge Leslie D. King shortly after the announcement.

"I am very proud of this appointment," said Governor Barbour. "Donna is a woman of integrity and high moral character who has a great legal mind. I know that she will be an asset to Mississippi's judicial system."

Barnes has been a shareholder in Mitchell, McNutt and Sams in Tupelo. She is a graduate of the University of Mississippi's School of Law (1985) where she graduated magna cum laude and the University of Cambridge, LL.M. (1997). She is a member of the Mississippi Bar; former president of both the Lee County Bar Association and the Lee County Young Lawyers Association; and a member of the Fifth Circuit and American Bar Associations.

Governor Barbour's Judicial Appointments Advisory Committee, which reviews the qualifications of potential judicial appointees in accordance with Executive Order 914, found Barnes fully qualified to
serve in this post.

Barnes will become only the second woman to serve on the Mississippi Court of Appeals since its inception in 1995, and the first woman to be appointed.

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