Another round of judicial recommendations released

HARRISBURG - A Pennsylvania Bar Association panel yesterday awarded its highest recommendation to three more potential candidates for two openings on the state Supreme Court.

Rated "highly recommended" by the association's Judicial Evaluation Commission were Debra M. Todd, a judge on the state Superior Court; and two jurists from the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas - President Judge C. Darnell Jones II and Judge Paul P. Panepinto.

Two other prospective candidates for the state's highest court received "recommended" ratings - Superior Court Judge Seamus P. McCaffery and Michael L. Krancer, chief judge and chairman of the state Environmental Hearing Board.

The commission issued a "recommended" rating for a potential candidate for Superior Court - Jacqueline O. Shogan, an adjunct professor at the University of Pittsburgh Law School. It gave another prospective candidate for that court - Richard M. Cappelli, a magisterial district judge in Delaware County - a "not recommended" rating because it said he has minimal experience before appellate courts and has not written enough legal opinions and briefs to judge his ability. - AP