J. Ronnie Greer

James Ronnie Greer (born 1952) is a United States federal judge.^[1]

Born in Mountain City, Tennessee, Greer received a B.S. from East Tennessee State University in 1974 and a J.D. from the University of Tennessee College of Law in 1980. He was a special assistant to Governor Lamar Alexander in Nashville, Tennessee from 1980 to 1981. He entered private practice in 1981, and was also the campaign manager for the Robin Beard U.S. Senate Campaign from 1981 to 1982, returning to full-time private practice in Greeneville, Tennessee from 1983 to 2003. He was a county attorney of Greene County, Tennessee from 1985 to 1986, and was then a state senator in the Tennessee General Assembly from 1986 to 1994.

On April 9, 2003, Greer was nominated by President George W. Bush to a seat on the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee vacated by Thomas G. Hull. Greer was confirmed by the United States Senate on June 11, 2003, and received his commission on June 12, 2003.

He is known for his tough sentence of moonshiner Marvin "Popcorn" Sutton.^[2] Sutton's wife maintains that this sentence was the reason he committed suicide.

References

Sources

• J. Ronnie Greer at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a public domain publication of the Federal Judicial Center.