Charles was the son of Georgia F. and William C. Worrill, also a judge, of Cuthbert, Randolph County, Georgia. He graduated from Bethel Military College and attended various U.S. cavalry and army schools before getting a law degree from Mercer University in 1909 and beginning his judicial career. Charles is probably most famous for presiding over the 1944 one-day trial of Lena Baker, an African-American and the first and only woman to be executed in Georgia's electric chair.