Diverse group of new Allegheny Co. judges to be 'gravitational force,' legal expert says

Candidates elected Tuesday to the Allegheny County Common Pleas bench will not only change the makeup of the court, but also could change the community’s perception of it and influence already sitting judges, observers of the race say.

The group of 10 elected judges includes six women and four people of color.

To put the diversity of the large number of incoming judges into perspective, voters elected 10 judges to the court in the previous four municipal elections combined — four of those judges were women and none were people of color.

“This incoming, critical mass of new people, I would expect them to exert their own kind of gravitational force,” said David Harris, a University of Pittsburgh law professor.

The four Black candidates elected will join three other Black judges on the bench. The six women will join 14 others.

“This is an interruption of the ‘good old boys’ system,” said Miracle Jones, director of policy and advocacy with 1Hood Media, a Pittsburgh-based collective of artists and activists.

“We believe the judiciary is an integral part of people’s lives. This will impact how justice is doled out in the county,” Jones said. “We know it’s going to help people feel more comfortable going into the court.”

Harris said there are limits on what Common Pleas judges can do, but he said they interpret the law and have significant discretion when it comes to sentencing, the setting of bail, evidence admissibility and how settlements are structured.

“All of those things give judges considerable power,” Harris said. “I expect (the new judges) to use that set of powers much more carefully and with more deliberation than has been done in the past.”

All of the judges elected Tuesday are Democrats, and five of the 10 ran together on a progressive slate in the spring primary.

They campaigned on issues of equality, equity, reducing the incarcerated population and the need to rehabilitate and provide treatment.

“Clearly, the county heard that message,” Harris said. “This will shift the way the court does a lot of its business for the foreseeable future.”

He said the election of progressive, Democratic candidates is reflective of how the country, as a whole, has moved over the past 10 years regarding criminal justice.

Harris and Jones attributed the success of the winners, in part, to the community’s reaction in recent years to allegations of racist actions in the court — including a Common Pleas judge who ultimately resigned after referring to a Black, female juror as “Aunt Jemima.”

“You can’t understate the damage done by the judge using racist speech,” Harris said. “This is a chance to change that perception in an important way.”

Jones added: “These things are occurring because there’s not enough representation on the bench to call out these stereotypes.”

She thinks the new group will influence the judges already on the bench.

Jones said she believes that the already sitting judges recognize there’s a disconnect between the court and the community. The new batch coming in — and a possible new way of approaching justice — could force the others to rethink the way they view the community.

Morgan Overton, the president of Young Democrats of Allegheny County, said through the election season that her organization sought a way to make the community understand the role of the courts in everyday life and why who gets elected there matters. They focused on demystifying the process.

“Judges can’t be political, but they do have power to influence the process,” she said. “Demystifying how the courts work was crucial.”

She praised the group that won.

“The slate of 10 candidates represents what America looks like,” Overton said.