Recorder's Court (Detroit)

The Recorder's Court, in Detroit, Michigan, was a state court of limited jurisdiction which had, for most of its history, exclusive jurisdiction over traffic and ordinance matters, and over all felony cases committed in the City of Detroit.

Within its 173-year history, the Ossian Sweet family murder trials—defended by Clarence Darrow and presided over by Judge Frank Murphy (who became Mayor of Detroit, Governor of Michigan, the last Governor-General of the Philippines and the first High Commissioner of the Philippines, United States Attorney General, and United States Supreme Court Associate Justice) is arguably the most famous case tried there.

[6] plaque (erected by the State Bar of Michigan in the first floor of the Frank Murphy Hall of Justice in Detroit.

Kevin Boyle's chronicle, Arc of Justice: A Saga of Race, Civil Rights, and Murder in the Jazz Age was adapted into a play.

Prior to the merger, "judges of Recorder's Court were elected from Detroit, so unsurprisingly, most of them were African-American.