Good evening. Erie’s upcoming election will include three candidates for common pleas judges and likely a variety of mdj candidates. Has PDAP or any of the county Public Defenders used questionnaires for judicial candidates related to the rights of indigent defendants?  If not, should we create a standard questionnaire combining information with accompanying questions for judicial candidates, publicize the results widely and call them out if they  fail to respond ?

My mom is a member of psea as a retired teacher.   Any judicial candidate who refused to respond to psea questions and interviews were called out to their members. Psea considered the responses of candidates and mailed preprinted cards to members to take with them to the polls so they had a handy list of who to vote for per the union. As advocates whose clients’ lives will be impacted by these candidates , shouldn’t we be putting them on the spot with questions related to their positions on issues important to our clients?

For example,
(1) “ data shows that excessive costs and fines imposed by judges on indigent defendants lead to license suspensions, arrest warrants…. What alternatives would you use to reduce the burden of excessive court costs and fines on indigent defendants?”

(2) “studies show many benefits to diverse juries such as (examples listed here)…what is your policy on ensuring that criminal defendants are tried by a jury of their peers?

Etc….