Julie E. Carnes

Born in Atlanta, Georgia, Carnes is the daughter of Georgia state court judge Charles Carnes. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Georgia in 1972 and a Juris Doctor from the University of Georgia School of Law in 1975. She was a law clerk to Judge Lewis R. Morgan of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit from 1975 to 1977.

Carnes was an Assistant United States Attorney in the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Georgia, from 1978 to 1990 and was Appellate Chief of the Criminal Division from 1987 to 1989. She was a member of the U.S. Attorney General's Advisory Committee on Sentencing Guidelines from 1988 to 1990 and was a Special Counsel to the U.S. Sentencing Commission in 1989 and a Commissioner on the U.S. Sentencing Commission from 1990 to 1996.

Julie Carnes was the judge in a lawsuit related to the homicide of JonBenét Ramsey. An early suspect in JonBenét's murder, Chris Wolf, sued JonBenét's parents, John and Patsy Ramsey, for slander. In their book, The Death of Innocence, John and Patsy Ramsey had mentioned a few suspects in their daughter's death, including Chris Wolf. Wolf sued the Ramseys for defamation, using gadfly attorney Darnay Hoffman to represent him. In his suit, Wolf contended that the Ramseys themselves were responsible for JonBenét's death, and were therefore guilty of slander by portraying him as a suspect.

In the view of Judge Carnes, the case hinged largely on the question of whether JonBenét Ramsey's death was an inside job, as Wolf claimed, or the work of an intruder, as maintained by JonBenét's parents.

In a decisive ruling, Judge Carnes concluded that "abundant evidence" showed that the murder was committed by an intruder, and that the Ramseys were innocent of any involvement. Carnes dismissed Wolf's lawsuit in summary judgment.[8][9]

• Julie E. Carnes at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a public domain publication of the Federal Judicial Center.
• Julie Carnes at Ballotpedia