James Horton's father was an Alabama probate judge, planter, and
former slaveholder; his mother was the daughter of a confederate
general. Horton gave up pursuit of a medical degree for a law
degree, which he received from Cumberland University in Lebanon,
Tennessee in 1899. He entered private practice, but left it in
1910 for a six-year career in the Alabama legislature. In 1922,
he was elected circuit judge. When the Scottsboro cases were
transferred to his Decatur courtroom in 1933, Horton was in the
fifth year of his second six-year term. The announcement that
the gracious and easygoing Horton would take on the
controversial Scottsboro case was generally greeted with
enthusiasm. Alabama papers praised the judge's "unusually
equable nature, great legal ability, and fairness." Prosecutor
Thomas Knight said that he thought Horton "would make an
excellent judge." During the course of the contentious trial of
Haywood Patterson, Horton rarely raised his soft, conversational
voice. Although his rulings neither c