Clayton County voters are likely experiencing a bit of deja vu as they contemplate the upcoming judicial races on June 9, when they will decide whether to reelect two sitting judges—one on the Superior Court and another on the State Court.

Superior Court Judge Kathryn "Katie" Powers, who was appointed by Gov. Nathan Deal in 2018, is being challenged by Jewel Scott, who served one term as Clayton County district attorney before being voted out of office in 2008.

State Court Chief Judge Linda Cowen, who was appointed to the bench by Gov. Zell Miller in 1995, is facing challenger Leslie Miller-Terry, who served one term as Clayton's solicitor general before being ousted in 2008.  

Scott also lost a bid for the County Commission, and Miller-Terry lost a 2012 bid to unseat Tracy Graham-Lawson, the DA who took Scott's place four years earlier.

Powers was first appointed to the State Court and tapped for a vacancy on the Superior Court the following year.

She is a Clayton County native who spent her legal career as a county prosecutor before joining the bench, signing on with the district attorney's office and working her way up to the position of executive assistant DA before being named to the court.

Powers earned her undergraduate degree at Georgia State University and her law degree at Mercer University's Walter F. George School of Law.  She joined the State Bar of Georgia in 2009.

Prior to her election as DA, Scott's legal career included stints at the Atlanta Legal Aid Society and New York City Office of Legal Affairs.

Scott's was an occasionally turbulent tenure as DA, including firing her chief investigator for what he said was retaliation when he refused to drop his campaign for a seat on the County Commission that Scott's husband, the late Lee Scott, also was seeking. Both candidates lost, and the investigator later sued both Scotts. 

After her loss to Lawson, Jewel and Lee Scott both ran for the same County Commission seat in 2010, she as a Democrat and he as a Republican. Both lost. 

Scott narrowly won a three-way primary in 2016 for a vacant Superior Court seat but lost the general election to now-Judge Shana Rooks. 

She is currently a partner at Scott & Turner Law Group, a criminal defense and family law boutique in Jonesboro. 

Scott was born in Jamaica and got her Bachelor of Law degree from the University of the West Indies in Barbados. She got her Juris Doctor at Mercer University's Walter F. George School of Law and joined the State Bar of Georgia in 2001.

Cowen has been on the State Court bench since her appointment in 1995 and is a former president of the Council of State Court Judges.

A Clayton County native, Cowen has been unopposed except in 2016, when she handily defeated challenger Hugh Cooper.  

Prior to her appointment, Cowen spent 10 years practicing law with her husband, Jonesboro criminal defense lawyer Martin Cowen III. Martin Cowen, a onetime Clayton County Probate Court associate judge, also is seeking office this year as a write-in candidate for Congress on the Libertarian ticket.

Linda Cowen has undergraduate degrees from Clayton Junior College and the University of Georgia and earned her law degree at the UGA School of Law. She joined the State Bar of Georgia in 1985.

Miller-Terry is originally from Philadelphia, where she began her legal career as a prosecutor. In 1992, she moved to Georgia and signed on with the Fulton County DA's office, then opened her own solo criminal defense practice in Jonesboro in 2000.

She won election as solicitor general in 2004 before being defeated by Tasha Mosley in 2008. She then briefly returned to the Fulton DA's office before moving over to serve as a DeKalb prosecutor.

In 2012, Miller-Terry came up short in her bid to oust Graham-Lawson, and in 2016 she lost a runoff election to fill a vacant Superior Court seat ultimately won by now-Judge Robert Mack.

Miller-Terry left the DeKalb DA's office in 2017 and currently maintains a solo practice and serves as solicitor for the city of College Park. She also is an ordained minister. 

Miller-Terry earned her undergraduate degree at Temple University and her law degree at Villanova University School of Law in 1986. She joined the State Bar of Georgia in 1994.