CLARKSDALE, Miss. (AP) - Former Coahoma County Judge Joe Webster has died of injuries suffered in a traffic accident in Clarksdale. He was 65.

The Mississippi Supreme Court announced in a news release that Webster died Wednesday. Funeral services are incomplete.

Webster served as a county court Judge for 20 years. He was elected in 1982 and served through December of 2002. A graduate of the University of Mississippi School of Law, Webster was in private law practice for 10 years before he was elected to the bench.

Webster was appointed by the Supreme Court to preside over the late Jackson Mayor Frank Melton's trial in Hinds County in 2007. Melton and two bodyguards on five felony counts related to the warrantless search and destruction of a west Jackson duplex.

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