Joseph Cornell Lindsey (born August 10, 1959) is a

Virginia Circuit Court The Virginia Circuit Courts are the state trial courts of general jurisdiction in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The Circuit Courts have jurisdiction to hear civil and criminal cases. For civil cases, the courts have authority to try cases with an ...

judge in the Fourth Judicial Circuit. Formerly a lawyer in private practice in

Norfolk Norfolk ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in England, located in East Anglia and officially part of the East of England region. It borders Lincolnshire and The Wash to the north-west, the North Sea to the north and eas ...

, substitute judge in that court for 16 years and Democratic politician, he represented (part-time) the 90th district in the

Virginia House of Delegates The Virginia House of Delegates is one of the two houses of the Virginia General Assembly, the other being the Senate of Virginia. It has 100 members elected for terms of two years; unlike most states, these elections take place during odd-numbe ...

from 2014 until November 15, 2020, when he resigned to accept the judicial appointment; fellow Democrat Angelia Williams Graves succeeded to the seat.

Early life and education

Born in Norfolk, Lindsey graduated from Booker T. Washington High School before attending the

Hampton Institute Hampton University is a private, historically black, research university in Hampton, Virginia, United States. Founded in 1868 as Hampton Agricultural and Industrial School, it was established by Black and White leaders of the American Missiona ...

. After receiving a B.A. in political science in 1981, he went to

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

to study law, and received a J.D. from

American University The American University (AU or American) is a Private university, private University charter#Federal, federally chartered research university in Washington, D.C., United States. Its main campus spans 90-acres (36 ha) on Ward Circle, in the Spri ...

in 1984.

Career

Lindsey had a general legal practice in Norfolk, and his district encompassed part of Norfolk and part of

Virginia Beach Virginia Beach (colloquially VB) is the List of cities in Virginia, most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), U.S. commonwealth of Virginia. The city is located on the Atlantic Ocean at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay in southeaster ...

. He won the 2014 special election to succeed retiring incumbent

Algie Howell Algie Thomas Howell, Jr. (born January 8, 1938) is an American politician. From 2004 to 2014 he was a member of the Virginia House of Delegates representing the 90th district, made up of parts of the cities of Norfolk and Virginia Beach. He is a m ...

. Voters have since re-elected Lindsey (who faced no opponents in 2015, 2017 and 2019). In the 2020 session, a bill which Lindsey had proposed allowing judges to inform juries of the range of criminal sentences passed and was signed into law by Governor

Ralph Northam Ralph Shearer Northam (born September 13, 1959) is an American physician and former politician who served as the 73rd governor of Virginia from 2018 to 2022. A pediatric Neurology, neurologist by occupation, he was an officer in the Medical Co ...

on March 4, 2020. Lindsey served as the Chair of the Privileges and Elections Committee.

Personal life

Judge Lindsey and his wife of 28 years, Rhoda, have two children, Ashley and Jason.

References

1959 births Living people Democratic Party members of the Virginia House of Delegates Politicians from Norfolk, Virginia Virginia lawyers Virginia state court judges 21st-century members of the Virginia General Assembly {{Virginia-delegate-stub