Chief Judge

Maryland's top judge issued an order yesterday barring judges from playing any role in hiring for the state Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services, in the wake of a news report about a Baltimore court program that employs the children of judges who sit on its hiring committee.Judge Robert M. Bell, chief judge of the Maryland Court of Appeals, said he was concerned about the appearance created by the hirings for the Alternative Sentencing Unit, a small program that intensively supervises some criminals in the community as an alternative to prison.

The turmoil in Baltimore's criminal justice system has prompted the city's top judge to decide to resign his post after being effectively stripped of his power to lead reform of the courts.Judge Joseph H. H. Kaplan said in an interview that he plans to announce his resignation in September -- his 15th anniversary as administrative judge -- and return to the bench as a trial judge early next year.Kaplan, 62, said he believes that Chief Judge Robert M. Bell of the Maryland Court of Appeals has wanted his ouster for the past two years.

WITH THE RETIREMENT yesterday of Chief Judge Robert C. Murphy, Maryland can look back at a remarkable quarter-century for its court system. In that time, Maryland's courts have become more efficient and, especially at the District Court level, far less susceptible to political influence. Under the chief judge's leadership, the courts have also learned to cope with larger caseloads, more complicated legal issues and longer trials.When he assumed the office of chief judge in 1972, Mr. Murphy already had five years of experience as the first chief judge of the Court of Special Appeals.

A state appeals court has erased the guilty verdict of a prisoner convicted of sending a death threat to Maryland's former chief judge from the cell where he is serving multiple life terms. The Court of Special Appeals said Terry P. Dorsey, 33, can have a new trial, this one by jury, because when he did not respond to Anne Arundel County Circuit Judge Clayton Greene Jr., he did not waive his right to a jury trial. Greene had found that Dorsey waived a jury trial, convicted him of threatening a state official and added three years to Dorsey's sentence of three concurrent life terms for sex offenses followed by two concurrent 15-year sentences for burglaries.

The state's chief judge is going into mandatory retirement today, but Gov. Parris N. Glendening said yesterday he needs more time to pick a successor.Glendening said Court of Appeals Judge John C. Eldridge has agreed to serve as the court's acting chief judge until the governor announces his choice to succeed Judge Robert C. Murphy.The governor told Eldridge he would need up to two more weeks to make what some of his advisers have called one of the most important appointments he will make, a Glendening spokesman said.

NOT SINCE Marvin Mandel has a Maryland governor had to make such a pivotal judicial decision: Naming someone this fall to replace Chief Judge Robert C. Murphy to run the state's far-flung judicial system, a bureaucracy with a $170 million budget and a huge administrative burden.Interest groups and politicians have already started pressuring Gov. Parris Glendening to pick a chief for the Maryland Court of Appeals based on race. That would be a mistake. This is one appointment where legal skills, temperament and management abilities are paramount.

District Judge Ben C. Clyburn -- who has managed daily operations at the Eastside District Court in Baltimore for close to a decade -- has been named the next chief judge of the District Court of Maryland. The appointment was announced yesterday by Court of Appeals Chief Judge Robert M. Bell. Clyburn will replace District Court Chief Judge James N. Vaughan when Vaughan retires Dec. 29. "My goal is to continue to work towards delivering services to citizens of Maryland," Clyburn said. "I look forward to continuing to move the justice system forward in a fair and impartial way."

In his first State of the Judiciary address, Maryland Chief Judge Robert M. Bell called yesterday for creation of six new judgeships, asked for legislative approval of $9,000 pay raises for judges and pledged to reinstill public confidence in the bench.At a joint session of the General Assembly, Bell urged Gov. Parris N. Glendening and legislators to approve new Circuit Court judgeships in Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Montgomery and Prince George's counties and new District Court slots in Baltimore and Anne Arundel counties.

Gov. Martin O'Malley nominated appellate Judge Joseph F. Murphy Jr. to Maryland's Court of Appeals yesterday, using his first opportunity to make over the state's highest court by choosing a jurist known for his depth of experience and moderate temperament. Murphy, chief judge of the state's second-highest court, would fill the vacancy created by the mandatory retirement of Judge Alan M. Wilner, who left the bench this year. Age limits on the court will give O'Malley two more opportunities to fill vacancies on the seven-member Court of Appeals in the coming months.

BAGHDAD, IRAQ -- Saddam Hussein's trial is to resume under a new chief judge today after the first presiding judge resigned and his initial replacement was accused of having belonged to the deposed dictator's Baath Party. One of Hussein's lawyers said the defense team would use the turnover in the trial panel's leadership to accuse Iraqi and U.S. officials of interference and to seek a new delay in the proceedings, which have been in recess for the past month. Meanwhile in central Baghdad, gunmen wearing uniforms of a Shiite-led security force swept into a Sunni Arab neighborhood before dawn yesterday, killing three men and speeding away with more than 20 others, police and witnesses said.