Chief Judge

Rosa Lee Bell, the mother of Maryland's chief judge, died Tuesday of a circulatory ailment at her home in Brooklyn, N.Y. She was 84 and formerly resided in East Baltimore. She was born Rosa Lee Jordan in Enfield, N.C., the oldest girl in a family of 11 children. Her parents were sharecroppers. "When the crop had to be gotten out, she was not in school. At best, she completed the third grade. Later in life, she taught herself to read and got an eighth-grade equivalency certificate," said her son, Chief Judge Robert M. Bell of the Maryland Court of Appeals.

ANNAPOLIS -- The chief judge of Maryland's highest court told a Senate committee yesterday that it was unlikely anyone on Maryland's death row would be executed soon.The state's law went into effect 14 years ago and 10 men are sentenced to death. But the state's laws, dogged public defenders and "technicalities" have kept those cases in the appeals process, Judge Robert C. Murphy told the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee.Sen. Walter M. Baker, D-Cecil, the committee chairman, introduced a package of eight procedural bills to speed up the process.

Anselm Sodaro, Baltimore's former chief judge who as a prosecutor won a stunning conviction in the 1952 Grammer murder case, died of cancer Sunday at Gilchrist Center for Hospice Care. He was 91 and had lived in Towson for a decade. He was the city state's attorney from 1950 to 1956, winning national attention for sending a Northeast Baltimore man to the gallows for murdering his wife in what was dubbed "the almost perfect crime." Gov. Theodore R. McKeldin, a Republican, picked Judge Sodaro, a Democrat, to fill a vacancy on the Supreme Bench of Baltimore City - now the Circuit Court - in 1956, and he remained on the bench for nearly 35 years.

GOV. PARRIS N. GLENDENING faced a formidable task in naming a replacement for Chief Judge Robert C. Murphy of the Court of Appeals, who retired earlier this month. For a quarter-century, Chief Judge Murphy provided strong, able and honorable leadership for Maryland's judicial system. The challenge facing his successor, Robert M. Bell, is not simply to maintain this high level of justice, but to enhance the quality of Maryland's courts and their service to the public.Chief Judge Bell brings one qualification not shared by any other candidate for the job, having served on all four levels of Maryland's courts, beginning with his appointment to the District Court in Baltimore City in 1975.

IN HIS LAST annual report to the General Assembly, Chief Judge Robert C. Murphy, who retires from the Maryland Court of Appeals next fall, told lawmakers that the state court system is so overloaded with litigation that its ability to remain a "viable institution of government" is at risk. Despite that assessment, DTC the chief judge did not ask for drastic changes. He didn't have to; a commission is now at work studying the state's judicial system and preparing recommendations for improving it.Maryland's 132 circuit judges and 98 district judges are coping with a rising number of cases.

Robert Charles Murphy, the retired chief judge of the Maryland Court of Appeals who presided over the transformation of the state judiciary while earning a reputation as a pragmatic jurist and tough administrator, died early yesterday of neuromuscular disease at his Timonium residence. He was 74. Before retiring in 1996 after 25 years as chief of Maryland's highest court, Judge Murphy oversaw the state's 252 judges, introduced such modern methods as computer tracking of cases, and created a system that temporarily recalled retired judges to the bench.

Robert Mack Bell arrived at Morgan State University in fall 1961 as a poor, skinny kid from East Baltimore. After a semester, he was hospitalized with tuberculosis.He returned in fall 1963 and took to his course work, finishing all but two credits by his senior year, graduating in 1966 and going on to Harvard Law School.Yesterday, during Morgan State's founders' day ceremonies, Bell gave his first major address since being named chief judge of the Maryland Court of Appeals two weeks ago.Bell recounted some of his humble beginnings and challenged the several hundred students assembled to use him as a role model.

Gov. William Donald Schaefer yesterday named Judge Alan M. Wilner of the Court of Special Appeals, former chief legal aide to Gov. Marvin Mandel, as the next chief judge of Maryland's second highest court.He will succeed Judge Richard P. Gilbert, who plans to retire from the Special Appeals bench Nov. 1."I have every confidence you will do much to carry on the tradition of the good service and that the interest of the people and of our judiciary will be more than well served by this designation," Governor Schaefer wrote to Judge Wilner.

Outraged at a Baltimore County judge's decision to erase the conviction of a man who brutally beat his estranged wife, the women's caucus of the General Assembly vowed yesterday to investigate the matter and demanded a meeting with Maryland's chief judge.News of last Friday's decision -- made after the judge was told the man needed a clean record, among other reasons, to join a country club -- also angered local women's groups.And Maryland Attorney General J. Joseph Curran Jr. criticized the decision by Circuit Judge Thomas J. Bollinger Sr., saying it "is sending the wrong message" about the seriousness of domestic violence.

Edward S. Northrop, retired chief judge of the U.S. District Court for Maryland and a former state senator, died in his sleep Tuesday of undetermined causes at Brook Grove Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Olney. He was 92. Born in Chevy Chase, Judge Northrop was known as both pragmatic and comical, and was well-liked in the Baltimore courthouse for his affable and personable manner. He held the distinction of being the first Democrat - and first attorney outside of Baltimore - to serve on the federal bench in Maryland since before the Civil War, when President John F. Kennedy appointed him in 1961.