Word: yorke
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Some sentences should vary, of course, according to the character and prior record of the defendant. The fact that shoplifters usually go to jail if they get caught in Charlotte, N.C., whereas they get probation in Albuquerque, may just reflect different local mores. As New York Criminal Court Judge Harold Rothwax says, "Communities have a right to view crime differently." Mandatory sentences set by the legislature, which several states use for at least some crimes, can be more heavy-handed than evenhanded. Such laws cannot distinguish, for instance, between someone who steals to feed his family and someone who steals...
...core of public trust is the belief that judges are impartial. New York Lawyer Simon Rifkind, a former judge, notes: "Impartiality is an acquired taste, like olives. You have to be habituated to it." Some judges never lose the attitudes they brought to the bench; lawyers complain that judges who were prosecutors favor the state, and judges who were defense lawyers favor the defendant...
...Sheer volume almost mandates it," says Judge Rothwax, who is careful to make sure the defendant agreed to the bargain and that it is fair. In New York, according to District Attorney Robert Morgenthau, the sentence a defendant gets from pleading guilty is not much different from the sentence he would get by going to trial. But in many other courts, clearing the docket, otherwise known as moving the business, becomes almost an end in itself...
...easier to weed out state and local judges. Since 1960, 48 states, plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, have created commissions to discipline judges for wrongdoing. A few of these commissions are effective: since 1975, the New York commission has removed ten judges, censured 65, suspended four, and 73 have resigned. California is now witnessing the unique spectacle of a public investigation of the state supreme court. At issue is whether some members of the court delayed announcing politically controversial decisions before an election in order to save Chief Justice Rose Bird from being ousted by the voters...
...know much about the candidates for whom they are voting. A Texas poll in 1976 found that only 2% could even remember the names of the county judges on the ballot. A campaign for office is an inexact gauge of how a judge will behave if elected. New York Court of Appeals Judge Sol Wachtler made a TV commercial showing him, dressed in his robes, slamming shut a jail door. This tough-on-crime approach was good politics, but voters favoring a law-and-order man were probably disappointed. Wachtler turned out to be, if anything, defense-minded...