Pennsylvania
Pa. primary election 2025: What to know about this year’s judicial races, and who’s running
What questions do you have about the 2025 elections? What major issues do you want candidates to address? Let us know.
While the intensity of the 2024 election cycle may be in the rearview mirror, the May 2025 primary election will give Pennsylvanians the opportunity to vote in judicial elections.
Judiciary elections traditionally don’t get the same attention as races for governor and federal offices, but these elections carry significant implications for the state’s legal landscape, affecting decisions on civil rights, criminal justice and the state’s authority.
Pennsylvania is also one of only eight states that determine the makeup of its courts through partisan races, whereas in most states, the governor appoints justices or they are determined through nonpartisan elections.
The Pennsylvania judiciary is structured into three main appellate courts: Commonwealth Court, Superior Court and Supreme Court.
Commonwealth Court
The Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court is unique among American courts as it handles disputes specifically involving government and regulatory matters. Its jurisdiction includes appeals from state agency decisions, cases regarding election law, and lawsuits against state and local governments.
The court has handed down significant rulings in recent years, including a 2023 decision finding Pennsylvania’s education funding system unconstitutional for failing to serve poorer school districts. Last year, the court ruled that mail-in ballots should not be disqualified for missing dates — a decision later overturned by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. More recently, the court ruled that communications between state lawmakers and lobbyists could remain confidential, impacting transparency in government.
The court currently comprises five Republican judges and three Democratic judges, with one seat left open by the retirement of Democrat Ellen Ceisler. Two candidates — Matthew Wolford and Joshua Prince — are vying for the Republican nomination, for which the primary will be held on May 20. The winner will likely face off against Democrat Stella Tsai in November.
Matthew Wolford
Matthew Wolford is an environmental law specialist based in Erie, where he runs a solo practice focused on regulatory challenges, property rights disputes, and defending clients against government enforcement actions. His background includes serving as an attorney for the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection and as a deputy state attorney general overseeing environmental crimes. Wolford also worked as a special prosecutor for both the state attorney general’s office and the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania.
Wolford was endorsed by the Pennsylvania Republican Party.
Joshua Prince
Joshua Prince is a Berks County-based attorney specializing in gun rights litigation who has sued Harrisburg and the state over gun restrictions. Prince previously ran for Commonwealth Court in 2023, although he was not successful. His campaign is endorsed by conservative Republican lawmakers including U.S. Representative Ryan McKenzie, county sheriffs, and gun rights groups, including Firearms Owners Against Crime. Prince initially withdrew after he failed to get the state party endorsement but later reentered the race.
Stella Tsai
Tsai currently serves on the Philadelphia’s Court of Common Pleas, where she has presided over criminal, civil, family and orphans’ court cases since her appointment in 2016. Tsai’s background includes a stint as chair of administrative law in Philadelphia’s law department, where she oversaw child welfare and social services attorneys from 2000 to 2003. She later became a business litigation partner at Archer & Greiner, focusing on regulatory compliance, land use, and ethics.
Tsai has a long history of advocacy for voting rights, immigrant rights and civil rights. She previously served as president of the Asian Pacific American Bar Association of Pennsylvania and held various roles within the Pennsylvania Bar Association. She has been endorsed by the Pennsylvania Democratic Committee.
Superior Court
The 15-judge Pennsylvania Superior Court is the primary appellate court for most criminal and civil matters with recent decisions highlighting its impact on issues such as the validity of criminal convictions and labor and civil cases.
For example, the court recently upheld a conviction for attempted murder against a man who appealed his case on the grounds that he changed his mind before going through with it. In January, the court upheld a $7 million medical malpractice verdict in a suit in which a patient accused a medical provider of failing to timely diagnose his cancer.
The court has one open seat following Justice Dan McCaffery’s election to the Supreme Court in 2023. Candidates vying for the open seat include two Republicans, Maria Battista and Ann Marie Wheatcraft, who will compete in the primary on May 20. The winner will likely face off against Brandon Neuman, the only Democrat running.
Maria Battista
Battista was a court nominee in 2023. She has since worked for The Judge Group, a professional services agency. A native of Knox, Pennsylvania, Battista has served as an assistant district attorney in both Venango and Franklin counties, and has held counsel positions in the Pennsylvania Departments of Health and State and was a contract specialist with the U.S. Department of Defense.
In addition to her law degree from Ohio Northern University, she holds a doctorate in education from the University of Pittsburgh. Battista’s campaign emphasizes her extensive experience in civil, criminal, and administrative law, and her commitment to an “efficient, accountable, and transparent” judiciary.
Ann Marie Wheatcraft
Wheatcraft is the president judge of the Chester County Court of Common Pleas, on which she has served since 2012.
As a judge, Wheatcraft has presided over a variety of cases encompassing criminal, civil, family and dependency courts. She helped develop and supervise Chester County’s treatment courts, which address issues related to drug addiction, mental health, and veterans’ affairs. She also implemented the introduction of comfort dogs into courtrooms to help ease the stress of vulnerable participants, particularly children.
Before her judicial appointment, Wheatcraft served as Assistant District Attorney in Chester County for 10 years. She is a past president of the Pennsylvania Association of Trial Court Professionals and serves on its executive board. Her academic credentials include an undergraduate degree from Penn State University, and she received her law degree from the University of New Hampshire School of Law.
Brandon Neuman
Neuman has served as a judge on the Washington County Court of Common Pleas since 2018, overseeing civil court proceedings as well as the county’s veteran’s specialty court. His judicial experience also includes presiding over criminal and family law cases, reflecting a broad understanding of the legal system.
In a notable 2024 ruling, Neuman ordered Washington County to notify voters if their mail ballots contained errors that could prevent them from being counted, a decision that was upheld by successive higher courts.
Before his tenure on the bench, Neuman represented Washington County in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives from 2011 to 2017. There he worked for passage of a 2015 law aimed at expediting the processing of rape kits, a response to a significant backlog that had hindered justice for survivors across the state.
Neuman’s educational background includes a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from the University of Richmond, a master’s degree from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, and a juris doctor from Duquesne University School of Law. Before entering public service, he practiced law in complex civil litigation and advocated for victims of nursing home neglect and abuse.
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania-born indie rockers Tigers Jaw return with new album release
The chorus for the song “Primary Colors” was something Walsh wrote years ago, with the song’s outro originally being used as a verse.
“And something just wasn’t quite clicking, and everything that I tried felt kind of forced,” Walsh said. “We were all just like, ‘Yeah, there’s something here, but it’s not quite doing what I think it has the potential to do.’”
The band then started toying with the dynamics between the verses and the chorus.
“It just unlocked something for me in the idea where I was like, ‘Wow, this kind of quiet, loud, quiet, loud format really works well with this song,’” Walsh said. “So yeah, it just transformed it instantly into an idea that felt a lot stronger.”
The album was recorded with Grammy-winning producer Will Yip, a relationship still budding from their 2014 album, “Charmer.” Collins said the new album’s sound is “as true as we could be to playing the record live.”
“I wasn’t as tied to the tones that have classically been Tigers Jaw because I think at this point, I’ve just come to this realization that no matter what, if we’re making it, it is Tigers Jaw,” Collins said.
The new album has a “palpable energy” that shares the same spirit as their earlier records, Walsh said. And while “tastes evolve,” the band followed “what feels good.”
“This is the best representation of the band at the time, and it’s almost like a snapshot of us as artists, as people, as a creative entity over this time in our career,” he said.
“Lost On You” is out now through Hopeless Records and is available on vinyl, CD and various streaming platforms.
On April 16, Tigers Jaw will perform at Union Transfer at 8 p.m. They will be supported by Hot Flash Heat Wave and Creeks, the solo project of Balance and Composure vocalist and guitarist Jon Simmons, who is from Doylestown, Pennsylvania.
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania court upends mandatory use of life-without-parole for second-degree murder
What to Know
- Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court says the state cannot automatically give life without parole for felony murder without weighing each defendant’s culpability in the killing.
- The high court on Thursday ordered a new sentencing hearing for Derek Lee over a second-degree conviction, but paused it for four months to give state lawmakers time to consider legislation in response.
- Pennsylvania law has made people liable for second-degree murder if they participated in an eligible felony that led to death. Life with no possibility of parole has been the only possible sentence.
- The court says the current rule treats a lookout the same as the person who kills.
Pennsylvania’s high court on Thursday overturned the use of automatic life sentences without parole for people convicted of second-degree murder, saying it violates the state’s constitutional ban on cruel punishment when imposed without a closer look at the defendant’s specific role and culpability.
The court majority ordered resentencing in the case of Derek Lee, convicted of a 2014 killing in Pittsburgh, but the decision also has implications for others among the roughly 1,000 other inmates currently serving similar second-degree murder sentences.
The court’s order was put on hold for four months to give the General Assembly time to “consider appropriate remedial measures.” In a footnote, the justices said they were ruling on Lee’s sentence and not addressing “questions of retroactivity.”
Prison reform groups hailed it as a landmark decision, while the Allegheny County district attorney’s office said it will follow the court’s order.
Pennsylvania law has made people liable for second-degree murder if they participated in an eligible felony that led to death, and life without parole has been the only possible sentence.
“The mandatory penalty scheme of life without parole for all offenders convicted of second degree murder fails to assess individual culpability regarding the intent to kill, and mandates the same punishment regardless of that culpability,” wrote Chief Justice Debra Todd in the lead opinion. She characterized it as not distinguishing “between the lookout, and the killer who pulls the trigger.”
The state high court’s decision comes after years of advocacy to undo mandatory life without parole sentences both in Pennsylvania and nationally. Nazgol Ghandnoosh of the Washington-based Sentencing Project said she counts 11 states and the federal system as having such laws for that kind of crime, sometimes called felony murder. Several states — California, Colorado and Minnesota — have moved away from that sentencing framework in recent years, she said.
Justice Kevin Dougherty noted in a separate opinion that unlike those convicted of first-degree murder, defendants serving life without parole for second-degree murder have “never been found by a judge or jury to have harbored the specific intent to kill” and may not have had “any involvement whatsoever with the actual killing. He or she does not even have to expect or foresee that a life may be taken.”
Lee’s lawyers had wanted the court to rule that life without parole sentences are unconstitutional for all second-degree murder convictions in Pennsylvania, said Quinn Cozzens, a staff attorney for the Abolitionist Law Center, which helped represent Lee. Instead, the court ruled that trial judges must examine the individual circumstances of a defendant’s case to decide which sentence is most appropriate, including the potential of life without parole.
The state’s public defenders’ association said the ruling will generate new post-conviction litigation and require them to do more investigation as well as develop “strategic litigation” to get the decision to apply retroactively.
A jury convicted Lee of second-degree murder but acquitted him of first-degree murder in 44-year-old Leonard Butler’s shooting death. Butler was shot in a struggle over a gun with Lee’s codefendant, Paul Durham.
Prosecutors argued it should be up to state lawmakers and the executive branch to address the policy issues surrounding second-degree murder sentences. Todd wrote that while the district attorney’s office “acknowledges that there may be persuasive arguments why a non-slayer should not be held to the same degree of culpability as the slayer, it stresses that these are policy decisions for the General Assembly.”
Cozzens urged lawmakers to “address this constitutional violation, given that the court granted them the opportunity to do so.”
Rep. Tim Briggs, a suburban Philadelphia Democrat who chairs the state House Judiciary Committee, said he planned to engage with Senate Republicans on potential legislation in response.
Briggs said he wanted to have decision apply retroactively, to give people serving life “for being the getaway driver” to “have the opportunity to have their facts looked at again.”
“I think inaction leaves a lot of this up to the courts to decide. I don’t feel comfortable doing that,” Briggs said. “We have a policymaking role here.”
Justice Sallie Mundy wrote that Lee “willingly participated in an armed home invasion and robbery, and purposefully engaged in assaultive behavior in the form of tasing and pistol-whipping the victim.” She said Lee and Durham “arguably kidnapped the victims by forcing them into the basement” and it will be up to the county judge to decide if Lee’s life-without-parole sentence is appropriate.
Todd’s opinion, citing an advocacy group, said 73% of those convicted of felony murder in Pennsylvania were 25 or younger when the killing occurred and almost 70% are Black people.
Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro also responded to the ruling on X.
Today, Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court ruled that mandatory life sentences without the possibility of parole for second degree murder are unconstitutional.
I have long believed this law is unjust and wrong. As Governor, I took legal action in this case arguing to strike down this…
— Governor Josh Shapiro (@GovernorShapiro) March 26, 2026
Pennsylvania
Teen boys in Pennsylvania get probation after using AI to create fake nude photos of classmates
LANCASTER, Pa. — Two teenage boys who used artificial intelligence to create fake nude photos of their classmates at an exclusive private school in Pennsylvania received probation Wednesday after dozens of victims described the images’ traumatizing effect on them.
The boys were 14 at the time. They admitted this month that they made about 350 images, showing at least 59 girls under 18, along with other victims who so far have not been identified.
Authorities said the boys took images of the girls from school photos, yearbooks, Instagram, TikTok and FaceTime chats in 2023 and 2024, and morphed them with images of adults depicting nudity or sexual activity.
More than 100 students and parents from Lancaster Country Day School were in court to hear victims describe the shock of having to identify their own faces in pornographic photos to detectives. Juvenile proceedings in Pennsylvania are normally closed, but this was opened by the judge, providing an unusual opportunity for the community to be seen and heard.
The girls described the fallout — anxiety attacks, a loss of trust, problems focusing on schoolwork and a fear that the images may someday surface in unexpected ways.
The two young men stood stone-faced throughout, flanked by their lawyers and parents, as they were called pedophiles, “sick and twisted” and perverted.
“I will never understand why they did this,” one victim told Judge Leonard Brown, saying it “destroyed my innocence.”
One young woman told Brown “how excruciating it is to bring these feelings up again and again.” Another choked back tears as she excoriated one of the defendants for expressing “fake empathy” as girls confided with him about their pain, before it became known that he had been part of creating and disseminating the images. Still another said all of her friends transferred schools, and that she “needed trauma therapy to even walk around my neighborhood.”
The defendants declined several opportunities to comment to the judge, who said he had not heard either boy take responsibility or apologize.
“This has been a regrettable, long, torturous process for everyone involved,” said Heidi Freese, defense attorney for one of the defendants. “There were very interesting, underlying legal issues surrounding the charges in this case and those will be decided on a different day in a different case.”
Brown ordered each to perform 60 hours of community service, have no contact with the victims and pay an unspecified amount of restitution. If they don’t have any additional legal problems, Brown said, the case can be expunged after two years.
As he imposed his sentence, Brown said that if they were adults, they probably would be headed for state prison. He said they should “take this opportunity to really examine” themselves.
The resolution of the Pennsylvania case comes days after three teenagers in Tennessee sued Elon Musk’s xAI, claiming the company’s Grok tools morphed their real photos into explicitly sexual images. The high school students are seeking class-action status to represent what the lawsuit says are thousands of people who were similarly victimized as minors.
The scandal in Pennsylvania led to a student protest, criminal charges against the two teenagers and the departure of leaders at the school, which says it has about 600 students K-12, class sizes averaging just 12 kids, and “an endowment in excess of $25 million.”
Nadeem Bezar, a Philadelphia lawyer who represents at least 10 of the victims, said Tuesday he expects to file a claim “against the school and anybody else we think has culpability in these deepfakes being created and disseminated.”
He said he has not yet seen the photos but expects the legal process to determine “exactly when and where and how the school knew, how the boys created these images, what platforms they used to create these images and how they were disseminated.”
As AI has become accessible and powerful, lawmakers across the country have passed laws aimed at barring deepfakes.
President Donald Trump signed the Take it Down Act last year, making it illegal to publish intimate images including deepfakes without consent, and requiring websites and social media sites to remove such material within 48 hours of being notified by a victim.
Forty-six states now have laws addressing deepfakes, with legislation introduced in the remaining four — Alaska, Missouri, New Mexico and Ohio — according to the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen.
___
Associated Press writers Geoff Mulvihill in Haddonfield, New Jersey, and Holly Ramer in Concord, New Hampshire, contributed.
-
Detroit, MI1 week agoDrummer Brian Pastoria, longtime Detroit music advocate, dies at 68
-
Science1 week agoHow a Melting Glacier in Antarctica Could Affect Tens of Millions Around the Globe
-
Science1 week agoI had to man up and get a mammogram
-
Movie Reviews1 week ago‘Youth’ Twitter review: Ken Karunaas impresses audiences; Suraj Venjaramoodu adds charm; music wins praise | – The Times of India
-
Sports6 days agoIOC addresses execution of 19-year-old Iranian wrestler Saleh Mohammadi
-
New Mexico5 days agoClovis shooting leaves one dead, four injured
-
Business1 week agoDisney’s new CEO says his focus is on storytelling and creativity
-
Technology5 days agoYouTube job scam text: How to spot it fast