He has pounded his gavel for the last time, and he will soon hang up his black robe. But state Supreme Court Chief Justice Beverly Lake still has plenty of opinions about the future of North Carolina’s criminal justice system.
“I think we’re doing a very good job,” Lake said in an interview with Carolina Journal. “That’s due primarily to the people in the system. We have between 5,000 and 6,000 employees across the state overall, and they’re simply fantastic.”
Those employees could do an even better job with more state funding, Lake said. The state court system draws about 2 percent of the state budget. “They’re grossly underpaid, especially our judges, who are paid substantially lower than their counterparts around the Southeast and around the country,” he said. “And that does not bode well for our system down the road. We’ve been innovative and progressive, even though we’ve had very inadequate funding from the General Assembly.”
Lake has also pushed for technology improvements. “We can save the state of North Carolina many, many millions of dollars if we can simply garner the courage to make some investment now,” he said. “We actually should have done this, as I told the General Assembly, four or five years ago. We have worn-out equipment now across the state, which is limiting our ability to effect justice in civil and criminal cases.
“We have cases recently on appeal to this court that have taken four years or more to get to trial. That is, the person has stayed in jail four years waiting for a chance for his case to be heard. That’s intolerable. We have other cases where the appellate record on review has not been completed for four, five or six years. We don’t have enough resources, in terms of personnel or equipment, to do the job adequately.”
Lake has spent 12 years on the state’s highest court. He has overseen North Carolina’s criminal justice system ever since he won the chief justice’s job in the 2000 election. “We’ve had a good five years, I think,” he said. “They’ve been most pleasant and, I think, productive. So I leave with mixed feelings. It’s a bittersweet proposition for me. I’m looking forward to retirement and doing other things, but I would like to stay a little longer and wind up some things.”
Lake’s term lasts through 2008, but state law mandates his retirement at age 72. Gov. Mike Easley has appointed Associate Justice Sarah Parker to take Lake’s seat in February at the center of the court’s bench.
State lawmakers have rejected proposals to lift the mandatory retirement age, but Lake said he hopes they will reconsider. “That is, in my view, way too young,” he said. “I feel like I have just come into middle age. I think I have a number of good years down the road, and I think that’s been the case for many judges that have had to retire at age 72.
“They could have served this state well for many additional years. They should be given that opportunity. There are ways other than mandatory retirement at a specific age to get rid of a judge who is not performing appropriately, through the Judicial Standards Commission or, if necessary, impeachment. So we do have ways to get rid of bad judges without making them retire arbitrarily.”
Despite the challenges, Lake says he is proud of some recent changes in the system of justice. “One is a commission I am in the process of getting underway — making all the final appointments,” he said. “I signed the order bringing it into existence about a month ago, and that’s the Commission on Equal Access to Justice, to enable less-privileged people or people of limited income to bring their civil cases into court.
“We are doing an adequate job on the criminal side, but these people have not had a proper chance, in my view, to bring their civil cases, which are very important to them.”
The chief justice is also proud of the Actual Innocence Commission he started in November 2002. “We have an excellent system of criminal justice, but no matter how good any system is, it can be made better,” he said. “We should always try to make it better, and that’s what this commission is about. We’re looking forward to the short session of the General Assembly enacting our Innocence Inquiry Commission, which will give us another tool to more readily look into cases that are really questionable.”
Lake spent the final days of the 2005 legislative session lobbying in favor of the new commission. It would review prisoners’ claims of innocence, outside the normal appeals process. “I think it enhances the public’s trust and confidence to know that we don’t consider that we’re perfect,” he said. “We do have a good system, but it’s not perfect. We do make mistakes, and we have made mistakes. We’ve kept some innocent people in prison for a number of years.
“And that is simply a grave injustice to them and to the public at large,” he said. “Also it means the actual perpetrator, the guilty person, is out on the street committing more crimes.”
The General Assembly has changed the system of electing judges in recent years. Lake is a Republican. Five of the six associate justices are also Republicans. But lawmakers have taken the partisan labels away from judicial races. They’ve also started a system of public funding for judicial candidates.
“I don’t know that there’s really a good way to select our judges,” Lake said. “We have debated this issue on merit selection and whether we should have elections for many years, going back to when I was in the Senate in the ’70s and ’80s. It’s never been adequately debated or resolved, in my opinion. And I can’t say that one process is completely free of problems, either the election process or the strictly appointed system.
“We have had, in the main, through most of our history, basically an appointed system. The governor makes the appointment, and then at the next election the appointed person runs in the election. When we had a one-party system here in this state, the Democratic Party, normally after the person had been appointed by the governor, they were never challenged. So they stood for election without an opponent.
“We can perhaps split the difference there by continuing with some merit selection process and appointment by the governor, with, at the appropriate point, say two years of service, a retention election, so that we don’t take the process entirely away from the people,” Lake said. “If they have a judge they don’t feel is adequately performing the job, then they can vote that person out of office. So I think that’s perhaps the best compromise.”
Lake will watch future developments from the sidelines. Parker will take her oath of office as the new chief justice Feb. 6. Appellate Judge Pat Timmons-Goodson will come out of retirement to take Parker’s place on the high court.
Mitch Kokai is associate editor of Carolina Journal.