Jeannine, I never really put any thought into this, but now that I think about it all the old Southern courthouses I've been DO have the courtroom on the second floor. It makes sense about the hot weather open-window thing. And the "escape theory" makes sense, too. If you've ever been to an old country church back in the 50s - 60s or so you well remember they had no air-conditioning. Most didn't have electricity, either. You'd be lucky if you had a funeral home hand fan to bring to fan yourself with. The windows were all up and the entrance door was open, too. I can only imagine what it must have been like attending a Sunday service in the middle of July in Montgomery County back then. You were expected to wear your "Sunday Best". And from the looks of all the layers of clothing that the women wore, plus the corsets, bustles, etc. Don't you know they were burning up??? And the men weren't much better off with those serge suits, stiff shirts with studs and stiff shirt collars. Not to mention the union suits! I don't think I could have sat through 5 minutes of a sermon back then dressed like that. Heck it was torture sitting in the church on regular Sundays back in the 50s and 60s... Yes, air-conditioning sure has spoiled us Southerners, hasn't it?? Ken -----Original Message----- I wouldn't be surprised if the shooting didn't happen in court. I asked my husband about it and he said that the reason courtrooms are on the second floor of the courthouses is because when most of them were built the windows and doors had to be kept open in the warm months to keep things cooler. They didn't want to make it easy for the accused to flee by jumping out a window, the second floor courtoom made them think about it twice.