THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, February 24, 1996 TAG: 9602240341
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY MASON PETERS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ELIZABETH CITY LENGTH: Short : 45 lines
Chief Justice Burley B. Mitchell Jr. of the North Carolina Supreme Court still hopes that legislative improvements can be made to the present partisan method of electing judges.
Mitchell toured the Albemarle Friday on a fact-finding tour to learn public perceptions of the North Carolina judicial system.
``A recent study indicated that less than 10 percent of our citizens could name their judges and 40 percent didn't know they were elected,'' he said during a visit to the Pasquotank County Courthouse.
Mitchell suggested that the present system of electing state judges in partisan voting carried the risk of occasionally rejecting good sitting judges who can be voted out statewide during shifts in the political climate.
At the last session of the General Assembly, state Sen. Marc Basnight, D-Dare, the president pro-tem of the Senate, led an unsuccessful fight to amend the present system of putting judges on the bench.
In a bill sponsored by state Sen. Fountain Odom of Charlotte, the
Senate voted to select judges on non-partisan merit with the people retaining the elective right to confirm or reject the judges. It also voted to elect Superior Court judges in the judges' districts, rather than statewide as is now the practice.
In spite of vigorous efforts by Basnight as the Senate leader to get the bill through the state House of Representatives, the measure was voted down. The bill may not be revived, but two other Senate bills governing judicial selection may be considered by the upcoming session of the General Assembly.
When the senate bill was defeated, Chief Justice Mitchell wrote Basnight in August 1995: ``I and the other appellate judges will be forever indebted to you for fighting so hard and well for (the Odom) bill. I am particularly saddened by the fact that this desperately needed improvement in our system of government was killed in the House by a majority of our own Democrats.''
Chief Justice Mitchell may need ballot box help this year. He is opposed in the coming elections by Superior Court Judge Raymond A. Warren of Charlotte. by CNB