Hosted by Wilson R. Smith, Attorney at Law on 100.9 FM WLYU. Presented by TCB Broadcasting, Lyons, Ga.
As an update on my post of the interview with the Georgia Right to Life concerning the judicial questionaire, you might be interested that one of the candidates for the Court of Appeals, Chris McFadden, has responded to the request to complete the judicial-questionaire.
His response makes sense.
Mike Sheffield is a criminal defense attorney from Lawrenceville, Georgia. I don’t know of any type of legal practice that is more stressful than defending people accussed of crimes. Many of them are guilty, but some of them are innocent, and they all need good, competent representation. Mike estimated that he had tried more than 300 jury trials and handled at least 60 appeals to either the Court of Appeals or the Supreme Court of Georgia.
This is not Mike’s first statewide campaign. As he explains in his interview he ran in 2004 for the position on the Georgia Court of Appeals now held by Judge Debra Bernes. That race resulted in a lawsuit by one of the candidates, Howard Mead, following the July election, an appeal to the Supreme Court of Georgia, and an entirely new election in November.
While Mike did not like having to go through such a long race in 2004, it remains an example of how important the courts are in resolving disputes. That is the whole point. Courts are important. Judges are important and that is why everyone should be paying close attention to this election. Listen to the interviews and make your decision, but vote.
Mike told me that he had refused to sign the pledge proposed by the Committee for Ethical Judicial Campaigns. His reasoning was that he wasn’t going to do that stuff anyway. He didn’t see a need to sign something. While I can’t particularly fault Mike’s reasoning, I have to point out that he did fill out the judicial questionaire generated by Georgia Right to Life. This is the secret questionaire that I criticized in my interview with Dan Becker.
As I told Mike, I was surprised that he would think filling out the questionaire was of any benefit in selecting a judicial candidate. Since he did not see the logic of signing a pledge to run an ethical campaign, I would have thought Mike would have found any questionaire to be unnecessary. Mike’s explanation was, I must admit, straightforward and disarming. He explained that he thought people had a right to know things about him and if the questionaire was what people (some of them, at least) wanted to know, he had no problem filling it out.
As a criminal defense attorney, you might jump to the conclusion that Mike was liberal, at least liberal leaning (no offense intended Mike), you know, get the criminal off at all costs. By filling out the judicial questionaire, you might jump to the conclusion that Mike is conservative, at least on abortion issues (nothing wrong there, either). I don’t know Mike just because of one interview, but nothing in his coversation gave me pause for concern as to his philosophy, liberal or conservative or centrist or otherwise. I say this out of fairness to Mike and in light of my stated position on the judicial questionaire.
I still don’t like the idea of a judicial questionaire. Mike’s interview made me think about this further, which is good. He made me realize that it isn’t because he, or anyone else, fills out the questionaire, that I don’t like it. I don’t like it because of the mentality of the people that want a candidate to fill it out.
VOTE!!! NOVEMBER 4TH!!!!!
Sara Doyle is our 5th Court of Appeals candidate interviewed. After 4, I was concerned that it was going to sound like “been there, done that.” It was nothing of the kind and I encourage everyone to listen and not assume you have already heard it just because you listened to some other interview.
Sara went to law school at my alma mater, Mercer, and has been practicing law for about 15 years. Currently, she is a partner with Knight & Holland, one of those big, international firms, but she began her careet in a small 8-man firm in Atlanta that did what most small firms do: a variety of this and that. When the small law firm merged with Knight & Holland, Sara was on her way. Her focus is in civil litigation and education law. Education law? I remember when there wasn’t any such thing!
Sara must be doing something right. She has been recognized as one of the top female lawyers in Georgia. I asked Sara about this rather sexist accolade. I mean I don’t know what being female or male has to do with being a good lawyer. I suspect that Sara is one of the best, male and female. Anyway, Sara was gracious in not making this a big deal. A real life example of a judicial temperament.
Listen to the interview and visit her website.
THEN GO VOTE!!!!!
Political elections are important, but the truth is, they are not as important as judicial elections. Why? Enacting laws is a group effort. It requires the agreement of dozens. The participants are by no means focused on being fair or impartial.
Judges, on the other hand, decide what the law means. More importantly, their decisions impact the lives of individuals in a personal and permanent way. The job requires knowledge of the law and the wisdom of Solomon in judging each specific case. Each judge is supposed to make up his own mind without being concerned that another judge may disagree with him.
If you have any respect for the rule of law and the independence of the judiciary, you will pay special and close attention to the candidates for this important position. If you don’t care, someday you may find yourself in a place like Guantanamo Bay and wish there was a judge you could rely on to protect you.
Chris McFadden has thrown his hat in the ring seeking the position of Judge on the Georgia Court of Appeals. Chris specializes in appellate law, which means he helps lawyers like me when a case is appealed from a lower court to either the Court of Appeals or the Supreme Court. It is his job, not to just know the law, but to know how to argue issues, convincingly and successfully. In addition to studying cases, he studies the judges that write them. He tries to understand what issues and approaches work with which judges so he can craft the most persuasive argument and present it in the most effective way.
Chris is a co-author of a book on appellate practice in Georgia. He has also worked with the Georgia Innocence Project which works to free men who have been convcted of crimes they did not commit. He has also been active in the Atlanta Bar Association and the Georgia Bar Association.
I always get nervous interviewing judicial candidates because it is quite possible I will find myself in the candidate’s court if elected. I took a real chance in 2006 when I interviewed Mike Wiggins who was running for the Supreme Court of Georgia. Now, that was an interview! However, if you listen to my interview with Chris and then listen to the one with Wiggins, you will understand, and hopefully, appreciate how important it is to elect judges without agendas, particularly hidden agendas.
Judge’s aren’t perfect. We all gripe when we lose a case, whether you are the lawyer or the client. Neither is the law perfect. But, these are not reasons which justify apathy. If anything, they require vigilance. Vigilance in electing judges who are fair and impartial. Every judge, like every person, has beliefs, biases and prejudices, but a judge knows, or should know, how to put aside his personal preferences and focus on the law. It is hard, but that is exactly what judges learn to do.
All the more reason to listen to this interview (and those to follow) to make sure you consider and vote for the person whom you believe would make the best judge.
Mike Crane, Vice Chairman, Southern Party of Georgia, discusses issues like ballot access, judicial elections, gun legislation and more.
Danny Orock, Legislative Coordinator for Georgia Watch, tells us about issues which may be hot in the 2007 session of the Georgia Legislature. For example, the elimination of the income tax, changes in the procedure for the election of judges, water rights, identity theft, stream buffers for developments. It is going to be a fun session.
Subscribe to What Is Goin' On comments
You can also subscribe to my podcast in iTunes by searching the iTunes Store for what is goin on.
Comments