Letter: Pay judges based on their merit
Keywords: lawyer, ordering, law, attorney, solicitor, order, Gavel, lawyers, court, attorneys, judge, courts, solicitors, Judges, JI-23136733 Credit: Photos.com/
Your editorial ["State judges overdue for a raise," Sept. 2] implies that all judges deserve a raise. But if (as most people seem to say) teacher pay should be merit-based, shouldn't judges' pay? Based on some outrageous sentences, I'd say some judges ought to suffer pay cuts rather than pay raises.
You (correctly) say, "Clearly judges' purchasing power has taken a powerful beating over the dozen years. . . ." I'd add that sentencing sanity also has gone downhill.
You say, "retain top-notch jurists" -- but what percentage of them are top-notch?
As for "what's fair for the state's 1,200 judges" -- what's fair for crime victims, their families and society? Too many sentences are not "fair" -- when the victim is dead (or maimed for life), but the perpetrator gets to live the rest of his or her life in freedom after some community service, a fine and/or a few years in jail.
Richard Siegelman, Plainview
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