Letters | Judges too good to throw out

AS AN alleged "reform" group tries to throw some of Philadelphia's finest judges off the bench, we should recall that the only "merit selection" in the history of Pennsylvania was Gov. Casey's response to corrupt judges in the Roofers scandal (taking cash in unmarked envelopes) in 1987.

When Casey appointed independent panels that recommended independent judges for election and appointment, the parties took issue with his selections and ran candidates against them. The Casey Five won election and four of them are up for retention this year:

Judge John Herron became administrative judge of the Civil Division. During his tenure, we became the only urban jurisdiction with no civil-case backlog. When the Casey Five took office, there were 28,000 pending cases and it took six years to get to trial. In 2000, there were 6,000 pending and all were tried within two years.

Judge Darnell Jones is now president judge of Common Pleas Court. When he ran for the Supreme Court, he was found highly qualified by the state bar association and endorsed by newspapers across Pennsylvania. He has taught judges across the country how to try homicide cases.

Judge Mark Bernstein designed the management system that led to civil cases being resolved promptly. He wrote the leading text on Pennsylvania rules of evidence and teaches judges how to try complex civil cases and case management across the country.

Judge Edward Summers has spent 20 years serving the needs of families in Family Court. Twenty years before truancy became a hot issue, he volunteered to serve in "truancy court" trying to keep struggling kids in school.

The last of the Five, Judge Legrome Davis, was appointed to the federal bench.

A wholesale purge of PA judges that would remove distinguished judges from the bench would be a grave miscarriage of justice.

Mary Goldman, Peter Hearn & Ernest E. Jones, Co-Chairs

Casey Five campaign in 1987