March 13, 1975

St. Joe (Searcy County) native Jesse Smith Henley was elevated from the position of chief judge of the Eastern District of Arkansas to the position of judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals of the Eighth Circuit. Henley presided over a number of desegregation cases and was the first federal judge in the country to declare an entire state penitentiary in violation of the Eighth Amendment. Although Henley is likely to be most remembered as the overseer of Arkansas prisons, he was actually one of the more conservative judges on the Court of Appeals. He said, “As far as the government in general is concerned, except for certain basic functions, I’m against it, always have been and still am.”