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Pa. Supreme Court expands judicial-review panel

Chief Justice Ronald D. Castille of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court has moved to expand and diversify the blue-ribbon panel set up to oversee reform in the Philadelphia courts.

Chief Justice Ronald D. Castille of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court has moved to expand and diversify the blue-ribbon panel set up to oversee reform in the Philadelphia courts.

Following complaints that the original nine-member committee was all male and too prosecution-oriented, Castille has added a top female attorney for the Pennsylvania State Police, a female judge who sits on the Philadelphia Common Pleas Court bench, and a veteran criminal defense lawyer who practices in local courts.

While the initial appointees included defense lawyers and a former head of the Defender Association who has since become a judge, some critics found the panel too weighted with lawyers known primarily for their work as prosecutors.

In an interview yesterday, Castille, a former Philadelphia district attorney, denied that the criticism drove the new selections. He said the three were asked to join the volunteer panel merely "to bring in more experts."

"We chose these people for their expertise, not for their gender," Castille added.

The three new appointees are:

Syndi L. Guido, director of the policy office of the Pennsylvania State Police. Before joining state government, she was a top prosecutor with the state Attorney General's Office. She is an expert on death-penalty prosecutions.

Defense lawyer Thomas Bello. A close friend of Castille's, Bello is now semiretired after working as a defense attorney for about two decades following a long career as a prosecutor. Castille said yesterday that the panel needed "a practicing defense lawyer.'"

Common Pleas Judge Renee Cardwell Hughes, who has been on the bench 15 years. She presides over homicide trials, an elite assignment for city judges, and is a former member of the State Commission on Sentencing.

She is to be the fourth sitting or former judge to join the review committee.

Castille and fellow Justice Seamus McCaffery, who is a former police detective and president judge of Philadelphia Municipal Court, have been moving to transform the Philadelphia courts in response to an Inquirer investigative series "Justice: Delayed, Dismissed, Denied."

The stories, published in December, portrayed Philadelphia's criminal justice system as in crisis, plagued by one of the nation's lowest conviction rates, the dismissal of thousands of cases without any decision on their merits, entrenched witness intimidation, and a massive fugitive problem.

Yesterday, Castille said the blue-ribbon panel would work "to address some of the perceived problems in the court system, make it more efficient and effective and making the city safer."

"Victims need fair treatment," he said. "Criminals themselves need fair treatment. If there's flaws in the system, we want to address them. Your series pointed out some flaws."

Guido and Hughes could not be reached for comment yesterday.

In an interview, Bello said that over his nearly four decades as a Philadelphia lawyer, the criminal justice system had become bogged down by a series of pervasive problems.

For one thing, he said, there was the a basic lack of civility at the main Philadelphia courthouse: the Criminal Justice Center, across from City Hall.

"They almost treat everybody - whether you're a defendant or a witness or a police officer - almost like a cattle call," he said.

On the issue of reform, Bello, who was a top prosecutor under Castille and three previous district attorneys, said he hoped a middle ground could be found that would serve defendants and victims, prosecutors and the defense bar.

As an example, he said that the system's penchant for complex and time-consuming preliminary hearings - a key reason for judicial delay - could be reduced if prosecutors were more open in sharing evidence with the defense.

"When I prosecuted homicide cases and people asked for discovery, I used to hand them the file and say, 'If you find anything interesting, call me,' " he recalled.

The 12-member panel is to work with outside consultants to develop a detailed plan for change, McCaffery and Castille have said.