Burley Bayard Mitchell Jr.[1] (born December 15, 1940) is an American jurist and former Chief Justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court.

He was a judge of the North Carolina Court of Appeals from 1977 to 1979, when Governor Jim Hunt appointed Mitchell as his Secretary of Crime Control and Public Safety.

Hunt appointed Mitchell to the office of chief justice in late 1994 to take the place of the retiring James G. Exum.

Mitchell's staff at the Administrative Office of the Courts included North Carolina Court of Appeals Judge Jack L. Cozort, who took leave to work for Mitchell as acting AOC director, and deputy director Jeanne Milliken Bonds, who was serving on the Knightdale Town Council at the time.

[8] In 2006, Mitchell helped found a so-called 527 group called FairJudges.net, which aimed to educate North Carolina voters about state appellate judicial candidates.