Judge Hughes to end prominent career

There are seven Philadelphia Common Pleas Court judges who handle only murder cases.

For most of last year, however, it seemed to many there was only one: Renee Cardwell Hughes.

From January 2010 through this January, the big cases went through Hughes' Criminal Justice Center courtroom with the regularity of jumbo jets at Philadelphia International: longtime fugitive David Nam for a 1996 Olney slaying; William J. Barnes for killing Police Officer Walter T. Barclay Jr., who died 41 years after being shot; two men in the 2008 killing of Officer Stephen Liczbinski; one in the 2009 killing of Officer John Pawlowski; two men in a racially tinged double murder in Tacony.

No more.

On June 3, Hughes, 55, will end her 16-year judicial career to become chief executive officer of the Southeastern Pennsylvania chapter of the American Red Cross in Philadelphia.

Hughes was not available for comment Thursday, but Common Pleas Court President Judge Pamela Pryor Dembe confirmed that she had received Hughes' retirement letter.

"I am really sorry to lose her, but the job she is going to sounds like a terrific opportunity," Dembe said.

Red Cross officials also declined comment but set a news conference for Friday in Center City.

Hughes, appointed in 1995 by Gov. Tom Ridge, began a second 10-year-term on the Common Pleas Court in 2006 after winning a retention election.

Last year's back-to-back trials were not all that kept Hughes busy.

Hughes also supervised a county investigating grand jury that recommended charges against Kermit Gosnell, charged with his wife and eight employees with operating a West Philadelphia clinic where illegal late-term abortions were performed.

The same grand jury also recommended charges against three priests, a monsignor, and a parochial school teacher involving sexual assaults on two young boys over seven years.

Her departure leaves a vacancy to be filled by Gov. Corbett, with the nominee then likely to run for a full term.

For lawyers, defendants, and witnesses, Hughes was a force to be reckoned with.

Though Hughes' courtroom atmosphere was sweetened with her soothing Virginia accent and a cordiality that led her to call most lawyers by first names, they thinly veiled a quick temper and withering tongue when she felt she or the court were not being respected.

In March, for example, at a hearing for the five charged in the church sex-abuse case, Hughes' anger caused the Rev. James Brennan to literally shake as he stood before her.

Brennan had asked Hughes for a court-appointed lawyer when he appeared before the grand jury. But on March 14, after he was arrested, Brennan appeared with two privately retained lawyers.

"You lied to me when you told me you had no money?" Hughes said, voice rising, eyes glaring at the priest.

Hughes ordered Brennan to reimburse the city $1,350 for the cost of his court-appointed lawyer.

Hughes was born in Lynchburg, Va., and earned a bachelor's degree in economics from the University of Virginia and her law degree in 1985 from Georgetown University Law Center.

Before becoming a judge, Hughes was in private practice, associate counsel for Independence Blue Cross, and general counsel to Law School Admissions Services.

Hughes was formerly married to and has a son with State Sen. Vincent Hughes (D., Phila.-Montgomery.).