Judge Greg Mathis has established himself as one of America’s most outspoken and opinionated TV arbiters— and these characteristics are evident both inside his TV courtroom and beyond.
These qualities, along with the engaging cases presented before him, have contributed to the success of his highly rated reality-based court TV show Judge Mathis, which returned to TV last Monday, marking the premiere of its 15th season. As a TV judge, he is still going strong.
Since the show’s inception, Judge Mathis has publicly handled TV cases that reflect some of society’s most pressing and prevalent issues. Among the issues the show tackles are neighbor relationships, property disputes, thefts of services, paternity claims and even broken promises.
Along the way, Mathis has shared his insight, which oftentimes is inspired from some of the cases he ruled on before retiring as a judge in Michigan’s 36th District court.
Yet, through it all, he says that it is his ability to relate to all sectors of society that contributes to the show’s effectiveness and success.
“To all the folks living in poverty and drug and crime-infested communities, that was me as well, so I have lived all the lives of the people who come before me,” Mathis told theGrio. “I can relate to them. I can speak their language. “
The justice system is ‘oppressive towards black men’
After overcoming the many hardships and adversities he faced growing up, Mathis worked his way through the political and justice systems to become highly regarded as a TV Jurist. The court show has won an NAACP Image award as well as a PRISM commendation for its inspirational and positive messages.
As a teenager, he overcame being held in juvenile detention for gang activities, and along the way he says he has endured enough experiences to expose some of the downfalls of a system he believes is oppressive towards black men.
“You know we talk about the criminal justice system and in many ways I think it is criminal in and of itself,” he said. “Being from the inside and the outside, I have the observation that the justice system, throughout our journey, has been used as a tool of oppression.”
“We find that we have a system where we fail to educate African-American men and we remove the jobs from their community and replace the jobs with guns and drugs and a failed education system and what we’re seeing now is the majority of our prison population is made up of African-American men,” he added.
Mathis’ comments echo the sentiments of many in the black community who have criticized the justice system for what they believe to be improper and unjust applications of the law, especially in regards to black men.
Judge Mathis on the George Zimmerman case
The acquittal of George Zimmerman in the death of Trayvon Martin is still fresh in the minds of many African-Americans, including Judge Mathis.
“I believe that [Martin] was stalked and murdered and the type of murder I believe was manslaughter,” Mathis told theGrio. “My observation is that Zimmerman was guilty of first-degree murder, I believe he was guilty of manslaughter and that is the use of a weapon resulting in the death of Trayvon Martin – and he had no legitimate self-defense claim. That’s my assessment.”
Zimmerman was found not guilty of second-degree murder and manslaughter relating to Martin’s death. His defense team argued that Martin was the aggressor in their altercation, and that Zimmerman shot the unarmed teen in self-defense.
In the aftermath of the controversial verdict, Mathis has collaborated with Sybrina Fulton, Martin’s mother, in planning a fundraiser for the Trayvon Martin Foundation.
He also lends his voice as the chairman of Rev. Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow PUSH organization, where he offers his resources to young students interested in pursuing a career in criminal justice.
A show that hopes to draw an impact
As for his television show, Mathis said he actively aims to restore faith in the justice system by hearing cases which provide insights into the everyday lives of both the program’s participants and its viewers.
One of the new episodes highlights the story of one man who says Mathis inspired him to leave the streets and pursue a master’s degree.
“What I enjoy most is meeting the folks who tell me how the help changed their lives, that’s the most fulfilling part of what I do is hearing how I made a difference,” Mathis said.
At its core, Mathis said his show helps to expose some of the challenges many still face in the community by addressing small claims cases that often stem from individuals who suffer from the effects of alcohol, drugs, violence and a failed education system.
“My hope is – and in many cases I’ve seen it succeed, is that those upper-class blacks, or those African-Americans who have overcome those conditions, will be touched to reach back and help because so many times we leave and we exist in a different world and forget that there’s another world there,” he said.
Through it all, Mathis said some cases are more challenging than others – and that it is particularly difficult for him to maintain his composure when he is presented with cases that involve the “most vulnerable,” which to him include children, seniors and women.
“When I hear those cases, I have to constrain and I guess sometimes restrain myself, in the court room and it kind of gets to me a little bit. Sometimes I have temperament issues in that regards but that’s the challenge there,” he admits, uttering the words through his chuckles.
Judge Mathis reflects on Judge Joe Brown, future plans
Despite the challenges, Mathis says it is “fun work” and his career falls in line with his passions to bring positive change to minority communities – but he isn’t the only one.
Other court reality judges join him in similar missions with their past and present syndicated shows including Judge Judy, Judge Hatchett and Judge Joe Brown. CBS Cancelled Judge Joe Brown’s show in March of this year, reportedly over a salary dispute.
To further Brown’s woes, a video surfaced in August appearing to show the Daytime Emmy nominee rambling about no longer being on television. Brown has never reacted to the nature of that video publicly. Still, Mathis had only positive thoughts to share of the incident.
“I really don’t focus a lot on folks flaws, however, we have a higher standard we must live by but we’re still flawed and in that instance, his flaw was drinking too much in public in my opinion. It’s just unfortunate it went viral,” he added.
Mathis’ season 15 premiere of the syndicated series did fairly well in its first week among its core demographic, women between the ages of 25-54.
With 15 seasons in 14 years, Mathis has presented a myriad of cases that have helped to establish his solid fan base — and he says that he’s not running off the air until he’s forced to.
“l think that when the viewers say they’ve had enough of me, I will resume a career in public service, which is where I started my career,” he said.
“Folks regularly ask me if I’ll run for office because they know of my passion, but that’s not necessarily what I want to do. I always tell folks when they ask me that, I tell them that I made a promise to my mother that I would never return to a life of crime – so until they clean politics up, I won’t be involved. I’ll pursue public service. “
Follow Lilly Workneh on Twitter @Lilly_Works