THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, September 18, 1996 TAG: 9609180474
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B4 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: WINSTON-SALEM LENGTH: 76 lines
The state judges who handle everything from small claims to death penalty appeals often do so in anonymity, with the people who elect them unaware of their work.
It's the equivalent of judicial roulette, says John G. Medlin Jr., who chairs Wachovia Corp. as well as a commission studying ways to improve the judicial system.
``Voters feel like they ought to vote for a judge, but they don't know any of these people. So they say, `I'll close my eyes and punch one.' '' Medlin told the Winston-Salem Journal.
That's why the Commission for the Future of Justice and the Courts in North Carolina will recommend to Chief Justice Burley Mitchell that North Carolina begin appointing judges.
A poll last year by the commission found that fewer than 7 percent of the state's voters could name a judge they voted for in 1994. Only 29 percent of those who voted remembered a judge being on the ballot.
The commission was created in 1994 by Jim Exum, then chief justice of the N.C. Supreme Court. The commission's goal is to study the judicial system and find ways to improve it.
The commission concluded that voter apathy and ignorance about judicial races puts North Carolina in danger of electing incompetent judges.
One cause of voter ignorance is the N.C. Code of Judicial Conduct, which limits actions lawyers and judges can take.
The code bars a judicial candidate from promising voters that he will act one way or another in office. Judges and candidates cannot state views on disputed legal or political issues. Although judicial elections are partisan, the code prohibits judges from serving in any party office, making speeches for the party or endorsing other candidates.
David R. Tanis, a Republican candidate running against Judson D. DeRamus, an incumbent judge in Forsyth Superior Court, said that it makes campaigning difficult.
``It hamstrings you. You cannot talk about the issues. And what is an issue? Are values an issue? You can make the argument that anything is an issue, including a judge's credentials,'' Tanis said. ``It is a very serious problem in that it effectively prevents the public from knowing about a judicial candidate.''
Under the commission's plan, the state would create two committees for appointing judges.
The appellate court committee would be made up of people appointed by the chief justice, the governor, members of the General Assembly and the N.C. State Bar.
A committee for District and Superior courts, which would be reorganized into a single circuit court under the commission's plans, would be made up of appointed lawyers, a newly created chief circuit judge, clerks of court, members of agencies that work with the courts and community members.
When a judicial seat opened up, the committee would make three recommendations, and the governor would choose one for a six- to eight-year term.
Within a year or so after the appointment, all judges would have a retention election with no competition. Voters would decide whether to keep the judge.
The last reorganization of the courts, under the Bell Commission in the late 1950s, took more than 10 years to move from proposal to reality. So members of this commission know that it may take years for the recommendation to be acted on.
Changes in the court system require a change in the state constitution and a voters' referendum.
Alan Briggs, a lawyer, former legislative aide and Democratic activist who serves on the commission, said people are loath to vote for something that takes away their right to vote.
The Legislature recently discussed making the superintendent of public instruction an appointed position.
``About two-thirds of the people said they didn't know who the superintendent was, and about two-thirds said they would defend with their dying breath the right to vote for him. We are Americans, and we have the right to vote and it's not something we want to give up lightly,'' Briggs said. by CNB