Chief Judge

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.

JOHN GARRETT PENN, 75 Former federal judge U.S. District Judge John Garrett Penn, the former chief judge of the federal court in Washington, died Sunday in Washington after a lengthy illness. President Jimmy Carter appointed Judge Penn to the federal bench in 1979. He served as chief judge from 1992 to 1997 and took a reduced caseload as a senior judge in 1998. Judge Penn served in the Army's Judge Advocate General's Corps from 1958 to 1961. He joined the Justice Department in 1961 under President John F. Kennedy and served in various positions there until 1970, when President Richard M. Nixon appointed him to the District of Columbia Superior Court bench.

The right to a fair trial is such a fundamental freedom in this country that the charges leveled against the U.S. Coast Guard's administrative court system merit serious attention, at the very least. The single most damning piece of evidence is the sworn statement made by a retired Coast Guard judge who says she was told to always rule in the government's favor. Imagine a U.S. District Court adjudicating civil cases under the same guidelines. Impeachment proceedings couldn't be arranged fast enough.

By the time Judge Joseph P. McCurdy stepped off the bench and packed up his robe Thursday, the Baltimore Circuit Court had shed 64 years of experience in less than two months. McCurdy, a judge for 15 years, was the third of three prominent senior city judges to retire this fall. Chief Judge Joseph H.H. Kaplan left Oct. 1, taking with him nearly 29 years, and Chief Judge Clifton T. Gordy left Nov. 7 with 21 years. By state law, judges must retire at age 70. These three retired earlier.

Nearly 2 million Marylanders are expected to go to the polls today - but with a record number of requests for absentee ballots, it's anyone's guess when the outcome of two down-to-the-wire statewide contests will be known. More than 191,000 people have requested absentee ballots, which could determine close races for U.S. Senate and governor but which won't begin to be counted until Thursday morning. The tallying of votes during the next 10 days is expected to be a crucial test of the state's electronic voting equipment and the politicians and election managers who promoted it. Today's election comes eight weeks after a chaotic primary, in which electronic check-in equipment malfunctioned and hundreds of precincts in Montgomery County and Baltimore failed to open on time when equipment was not delivered and election judges failed to show up. It also will put Maryland in the national spotlight as voters across the country grapple with new, federally required electronic equipment.

With Baltimore scrambling to make sure next week's voting goes smoothly, city elections officials expressed concern yesterday about reports that a caller was contacting poll workers and changing their Election Day assignments. State elections chief Linda H. Lamone contacted the FBI yesterday after Baltimore officials reported that someone had called at least 10 poll workers and falsely told them that their precinct assignments had been switched. Baltimore Board of Elections Chairman Armstead B. Crawley Jones Sr. said that poll workers are receiving legitimate calls this week from employees at the University of Baltimore's Schaefer Center, reminding election judges where to go and what time to arrive.

Judge Thomas Beale Dorsey, a Howard County resident who made his residence on a 2,000-acre farm in Mount Hebron, was born Oct. 17, 1780. He was a farmer, lawyer, state delegate and state senator, state attorney general and chief judge of the state Court of Appeals until 1851. [Source: Howard County, A Pictorial History, Joetta M. Cramm]

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- The Iraqi government fired the chief judge in Saddam Hussein's genocide trial yesterday, prompting accusations of political interference and raising renewed questions over the fairness of the effort to bring the deposed Iraqi leader to justice. Government spokesman Ali Dabbagh said the decision to remove Abdullah al-Amiri was taken at a Cabinet meeting after the judge's comment in court last week that he did not regard Hussein as a dictator. The Cabinet, known as the Council of Ministers, then issued an order to the U.S.-created Iraqi High Tribunal to replace him, Dabbagh said.

Next week's Republican primary will winnow from four to three the number of candidates running for Orphans Court judgeships. Despite its title, which is a holdover from English law, the court has nothing to do with children. Its three judges, who need not be lawyers, are probate judges and decide disputes dealing with estates. The four-year term is a part-time job, which is typically two days a week. Three incumbents are seeking re-election: Nancy C. Phelps, 58, of Gambrills; Gail J. Schaffer, 62, of Annapolis; and Gordon H. Witherspoon, 78, of Annapolis.

Ailene W. Hutchins, a former educator and Orphans' Court judge who wrote widely about her native Calvert County, died in her sleep June 23 at her home in Prince Frederick. She was 86. Ailene Williams was born and raised on her family's farm near Barstow, and graduated from Calvert County High School. At 19, she earned a bachelor's degree in 1939 from Western Maryland College, now McDaniel College. She taught French, English and drama at Calvert County High, and was the school's guidance counselor from 1951 to 1963.