Michigan's County Courthouses

Kent County

91 GRAND RAPiDS—ThecountythatishometoMichigan’s second largest city also boasts perhaps its most user-friendly modern courthouse. Television screens akin to those in an airport give the public updates on matters before the court. Citizens facing often stressful experiences as witnesses, litigants, criminal defendants, jurors, and spectators find comfort in wide corridors and ample light filtered through blue-tinged windows that grant some of the finest views of the city. Different elevators, hallways, and bathrooms separate the public from the personnel and from those in custody. Built for $ million and unveiled on September , , the twelve-story building is one of the newest landmarks downtown.it stands as one edifice measuring , square feet, but close inspection of its design reveals that it is really two towers connected by a v-shaped elevator lobby and vestibule. it is hardly the first symbol of justice in Grand Rapids. Kent County was first drawn and named on March , , for Chancellor James Kent, a celebrated New York jurist who died in . By  it was separated from Kalamazoo County and organized in its own right. The first courthouse was erected in  at present-day Fulton Street (veteran’s) Park at a cost of about $,. it was a two-story frame structure measuring about thirty by forty feet. Columns at the front of the building faced south, and a cupola capped by a gilded ball graced the top of the building. Fire destroyed it on July , . A few months before, perhaps the most dramatic murder trial in Kent County history was recorded. The victim was Nega, a Native American woman found dead on December , . E. M. Miller, the suspect, fled toward the lakeshore and then down the frozen ice toward Chicago. Nega’s mourners cried foul after they lost his trail in Muskegon. Prominent white citizens of Grand Rapids promised to help, and T. D. Gilbert, the newly elected sheriff of Ottawa County, left in pursuit. Gilbert figured that Miller was bound for Chicago, but there were no tracks on the snow-covered trail along the shore. Gilbert walked out onto the ice and finally found a clue—frozen tobacco juice, which was the mark of a white man because Native Americans typically did not chew. He followed the trail into the night, pushing on until he reached the lighthouse at the mouth of the Kalamazoo River. He learned that no one had passed that day. The keeper was instructed to send his boy to Saugatuck should anyone pass. The boy came the next morning. Gilbert made haste Kent County KENT COuNTY 92 and apprehended Miller, who said, “i suppose i must go with you.” Miller revealed that he camped on shore the night before, which is why Gilbert lost his trail. intense excitement over the trial filled Grand Rapids. A steady stream of visitors came to lay eyes on Miller. Proceedings began on May , . A packed courtroom listened to several days of testimony, which closed on May . The jury began deliberation at : p.m. as a massive storm struck the area. A particularly colorful account recalls that the court was shaken to its foundations as the people stood aghast. “it seemed to be the storm-king giving warning to do justice, and the jury took the hint.” Thunderclaps continued to ring out as lighting struck and rain poured down “until it seemed that heaven was at war with the earth.” Nature did not subside even as the foreman at : p.m. read a verdict of guilty with a recommendation for executive clemency. Fully aware that a bill was pending that would ban capital punishment, Judge Ransom sentenced Miller to hang on February , . The bill did not pass that year. A scaffold was erected, but friends of Miller secured for him a reprieve. in the meanwhile the ban passed after another attempt, and his death sentence was set aside for life imprisonment. Years later he was pardoned after the prosecution’s star witness on his deathbed confessed to the murder. Another source asserts that Sheriff Gilbert was convinced of Miller’s innocence, worked to have the ban passed, and assiduously delayed completion of the scaffold even though many good oaks with low branches were near the court. After the court that saw Nega’s murder trial burned down, a $ makeshift replacement building was erected. it was serviceable for only six years. The growing records were scattered about the city in clothes baskets, flour barrels , and vacant rooms. The county government and court moved about town, with the...