Illustration by Matt Mahurin

It became all too apparent again recently — with that Common Pleas judge’s light sentence instrumental in letting a lifelong criminal back out on the street to murder a cop — just how crucial a judge’s decisions can be. That judge could be Frank Palumbo, who got elected through great ballot position. Or Leslie Fleisher — overwhelming union support. Or Mike Erdos — loads of cash. Or Benjamin Lerner, who, after getting appointed, had to run for election, lost, then kissed the rings of half the ward leaders in Philadelphia two years later, because that’s the process we’ve got, and if he wanted to be a judge, well, he had no choice.
 
Back to Courtroom 1105: Lerner, careful, experienced and judicious, explains to those in his court how he considered the gunman’s fear, and weighed it against his imminent danger. The man did have options: He could have called 911 on the cell phone he had with him; he could have put his .38 to the other man’s head, told him not to move, and left the bar himself instead of killing him. Perhaps he was wrong in assuming the other man would even come back with a gun. He wasn’t in imminent danger.
 
Lerner’s decision is murder in the first degree. Premeditated. Murder One.
 
The victim’s mother jumps up: “Hallelujah! Now my son can rest in peace!” The mother, with several family members, leaves Room 1105 of the Criminal Justice Center. They, at least, have gotten their day in court in Philadelphia.
 
In the end, there is no easy answer to what we should do about the way we pick judges in Philadelphia. State Supreme Court Chief Justice Ron Castille has been advocating for the merit selection of state-level judiciary; Pennsylvania is one of only six states that elect all judges. Merit ­selection — endorsements by colleagues, a certain level of courtroom experience and so forth — would seem the obvious way to go. But even there, the question becomes, exactly who decides who has merit?
 
One day recently, I ran into Castille in the elevator (we work in the same building), and I asked him if there is any way to select judges that is politics-proof. “No matter what system there is,” he told me, “anybody who could get politics out of it would deserve the Nobel prize.”