Intermediate Microeconomic: Judge And Politician

    The Judge, the Politician, and the Press: Newspaper Coverage and Criminal Sentencing Across Electoral Systems         NAME: INSTRUCTOR: COURSE: DATE:             Abstract: The United States’ state trial court judges wield immense control over the judicial system where a large number of convicts’ sentences do not get reviewed by the courts of appeal., in the year 2006 alone, over one million offenders were convicted to over two million years in penitentiary. (Rosenmerkel, et al, 2009) The fact that there exists various selection methods including appointments, partisan and non partisan elections as well as party nominations excercebates the dilemma as each of these interest groups desire to exert their influence on the jury. Importantly, the citizenry who elect, nominate or propose the judges are often times not privy to the judicial candidates’ bio data prior to their appointments. In such a scenario, the media plays a key role in information gathering and sensitization of the masses about the candidates, although sometimes they do not. This oversight role played by the press enhances accountability by ensuring that the electorate makes informed decisions regarding elections and appointments into high office.          
The judge, the politician, and the press In the dispensation of justice, the judicial system has more often than not been criticized by the public for being either too lenient or too harsh because the citizens are the main beneficiary of a prudent judicial system. Interventions to ensure prudence can be successful when the society involves the media, whose input in educating and sensitizing the public on individual judicial officer’s conduct on discharging sentences can enable them make informed decisions on judicial candidates’ qualifications and conduct in cases where the electorate has scanty information regarding the candidate to be elected judge. The current judicial setup comprises three selection methods including the non partisan election system where candidates vie without party recognition and the leading two go for general elections. Partisan systems nominate candidates through political parties while the legislature appoints some judges. Aspects of under punishment or over punishment can also be brought into focus by the media where the history of each judge’s penal preference is examined and discussed prior to appointment nomination or election. The media enables the voters to make informed choices when electing the judges. It is factual that the public will always want strict sentences, but this is also determined by the judicial selection system used. Partisan elections are party sponsored and voting is reliant solely on party affiliation. On the same breadth, the media’s persuasion may differ depending on whether it is an appointed or a non partisan elected judge due to the selection effect. Media coverage on particular cases may result in various outcomes, most frequent of all being increased sentencing for those judges without party or political affiliations. It is also paramount to note that this press effect may not be felt much where judges have party or political connotations. Newspaper coverage on judicial matters is inadequately represented since other storylines take prominence on most media space. The other potential outcome of media coverage will be the severity of the sentence as either harsher or leaner. According to data provided by the National Judicial Reporting Program (NJRP) on one and half million sentences meted out between 1986 and 2006 and newspaper coverage on almost ten thousand judges during the period of 2004-5, an average of nine articles per judge per year with a very high variation.  Data collection on media coverage on judges is done by content analysis on a sample of 9,828 state trial judges in 1,186 newspapers. These newspapers comprise 61 percent of the total circulation in USA. Averagely, each sampled newspaper gives an output of nine articles per judge every year and the variation deviates by 21 articles. Local television and other media are also used in the analysis, showing a very low level of coverage on judges on TV. The analysis focuses on various felonies including homicide, sexual assault and robbery. It also looks into jail terms, offender’s demographics, offense category and penal code used. It indicates that the more media attention a judge gets, especially on severe crimes, the harsher the sentence meted out to the convict. Secondly, the areas which enjoy frequent newspaper readership tend to be more equipped with facts and information and therefore tend to experience different court ruling outcomes even without media coverage. Reduction in the duration of sentence on the basis of media attention always does not consider the weight of the case and other impeding factors. The effect of this congruence between judicial regions and media coverage markets creates variations of either high congruence, with a more informed public or low congruence and this determines the media influence on court processes. However, congruence is not correlated with aspects of voters’ assessment of a judge&rsquo...