MEMPHIS, Tenn. - He's known to television viewers as Judge Joe Brown, but now he wants to be the district attorney general in Shelby County.

The Commercial Appeal reports Brown turned in a petition Tuesday to run for the Democratic nomination in the race.

He faces Republican incumbent Amy Weirich.

The 66-year-old Brown was Shelby County Criminal Court judge for 10 years before leaving the bench in 2000 to focus on his then 2-year-old nationally syndicated television show. The show was canceled last year.

Brown went to Memphis from California in 1974 and practiced as a defense lawyer.

Brown received attention for creative sentences he gave while on the bench, for instance, allowing burglary victims to take what they wanted in restitution from the thief's home.