I thoroughly enjoyed the last rose cafe with Judge Miller. One of the things which stands out even a week later is Judge Miller’s humor and his experiences as an attorney. His humor was extremely light hearted, and was unexpected especially from someone who has had to have witnessed the very bad sides of humanity, being a criminal judge. Especially the joke about the “get out of jail free card” should we (that day’s rose cafe audience) be arrested for some offense. I also enjoyed his very thoughtful responses on the excellent questions given. Particularly, his stance on how judges should not be elected, but rather appointed. I was talking about this the other day with my friend, and had come to the same conclusion that Miller had: if one is elected and has to maintain their seat, it may impact their ruling in order to maintain a good public impression. I also enjoyed hearing his stance on heroin dispensaries, especially given the fact that he probably has much more of a personal and professional insight into this issue given that he has met people who had been repeatedly arrested due to their heroin addiction. Overall, this had to be one of my favorite rose cafe’s so far, due to Judge Miller’s insights, interesting stories, and humor.
I totally agree with you that this was an awesome discussion. Definitely the coolest and only judge I have ever met, and I really hope he gets re-elected.
I think the question of elected judges is very interesting. I can see both positives and negatives of having elected judges. I would be interested to read some studies about differences between elected and appointed judges.