Justice delayed leads to California judge’s retirement

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The presiding justice of the California appeals court docket in Sacramento has retired as a part of a punishment introduced Wednesday for delays in deciding 200 circumstances over a decade that value litigants cash and a few prison defendants their freedom.

Justice Vance Raye agreed to step down from the Third District Courtroom of Attraction as a part of a public admonishment for extreme delays that lasted years in some circumstances, the Fee on Judicial Efficiency stated.

“Justice Raye engaged in a sample of delay in deciding a big variety of appellate circumstances over a prolonged interval,” the fee stated. “He didn’t encourage and undertake affordable procedures to make sure that precedence and older circumstances had been determined first.”

Whereas there was a excessive quantity of circumstances within the court docket, the fee stated that alone couldn’t clarify the delays as a result of not all justices had related backlogs.

California legislation requires that judges’ salaries be withheld in the event that they situation selections greater than 90 days after listening to arguments. However there aren’t any different particular cut-off dates on how lengthy appellate courts take and no guidelines over how lengthy circumstances can languish earlier than a case is submitted after argument.

Raye by no means violated the rule that may have withheld his paycheck, however delays previous to arguments dragged on practically eight years in a civil case and greater than 8.5 years in a prison matter involving a juvenile.

“In some circumstances, the appeals turned moot because of the passage of time,” the fee stated. “Some defendants in prison circumstances served time that may not have been served had the appellate resolution been issued at an earlier date, and others had served their full time period of probation, topic to situations that had been in the end discovered to be improper.”

There was no proof Raye deliberately disregarded his responsibility, the fee stated.

Raye agreed with the fee’s findings and stipulated with the self-discipline, in response to the order for public admonishment. He agreed to not function a judicial officer once more.

An lawyer for Raye didn’t instantly return a message looking for remark.

Raye, an Oklahoma native, was a U.S. Air Drive prosecutor at Beale Air Drive Base close to Marysville earlier than becoming a member of the California lawyer common’s workplace. He served as deputy legislative secretary and authorized affairs secretary to Gov. George Deukmejian.

Deukmejian, a Republican, appointed Raye to Sacramento Superior Courtroom in 1989 after which to the appeals court docket two years later. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, additionally a Republican, appointed Raye as presiding justice in 2010.

Because the court docket’s administrative decide, Raye was accountable for main the court docket, establishing insurance policies, supervising personnel, selling entry to justice and offering a discussion board for truthful and “expeditious decision of disputes,” in response to California court docket guidelines.

Raye authored a unanimous opinion a yr in the past upholding Gov. Gavin Newsom’s use of emergency powers to make far-reaching insurance policies through the COVID-19 pandemic. The opinion overturned a decrease court docket discovering that the Democrat had carried out an excessive amount of unilaterally.

Newsom, who’s up for reelection this yr, can appoint Raye’s successor.