Judge Lisette Shirdan-Harris: Too lenient?

**Dave** · 08-11-2012, 03:35 PM

This sounds pretty ridiculous to me. One of the articles says she took into consideration that the idiot who shot two kids was going to start a basketball league at a rec center. WTF? Is this judge really as stupid as she sounds? Did they threaten to kill her if she didn't give the guy a lenient sentence?

When is she up for a retention vote? Unless somebody knows something that these articles aren't mentioning, I'd say there should be a push to not retain her. Apparently she's an unknown who only got elected because the unions supported her, according to the Public Record article.

Minimum sentence for gunman in shooting of 2 children - Philly.com
Man gets minimum sentence in shooting of 2 children

Shooting victims' family outraged at short prison sentence - Philly.com

In brief remarks before sentencing, Shirdan-Harris said she had taken note of letters in support of Pickard. One from a recreation center leader said Pickard had plans to start a basketball league.

But she also said that crimes involving children were especially serious and that Pickard seemed a poor candidate for rehabilitation. He was on probation for a drug-possession conviction at the time of the shooting, Shirdan-Harris said.

Then she imposed a five- to 10-year sentence for each of three aggravated assault convictions, to run simultaneously, followed by five years of probation.

Detectives noted that Pickard has been locked up for almost two years awaiting trial. With credit for time served, he would hit his minimum in three years. "Disgusted," one detective said when asked for a reaction to the punishment.

They also remarked about the prison tapes. On them, Pickard appears to say that the warring parties had agreed not to testify against each other. But once they get out, Pickard says, it's "back on again."

And she gives the guy probation. What a joke. Like that's going to keep him from shooting more people.

Pickard, 26, of Redfield Street near Callowhill, was on probation stemming from a drug conviction the day of the triple shooting. He turned in his chair and grinned broadly at his extended family after the sentence was read.

Moments before, he apologized to them and to Anetta Johns, 26, the mother of two of his victims, Joseph Brown, now 10, who was shot in the buttocks, and Deshauon Brown, now 4, who was shot in the groin. The boys were playing outside their home near 67th Street and Woodland Avenue at 3:30 p.m. when the bullets Pickard meant for rival Marquis Wesley, 19, tore into them. Shot in the back, Wesley has since recovered.

"I'm ashamed to say that I was a part of anything that took place," said Pickard, who added that he has three children of his own.

Johns and her husband, Dwayne Dillard, 27, were disgusted with the sentence and bolted from the courtroom seconds after Shirdan-Harris announced it.

"I don't think it's fair. Five to 10 years for shooting kids? Please! That's nothing; he almost died," she said of Deshauon, who had two blood transfusions during surgery. "I'm speechless."

The Philadelphia Public Record

An example of union backing was that put behind the campaign of Lisette Shirdan-Harris. She had the support of LDC, led by Sam Staten, Sr., and many of the Building Trades Union locals as well. She was an unknown candidate who came in a winner.
What would her numbers have looked like without the backing of LDC Local 332?
“She would have lost absolutely,” said Staten Sr. the union’s president. “She would have had no chance of winning. She wasn’t known and she was new to the field.”

**Hospitalitygirl** · 08-11-2012, 03:48 PM

It sounds as though she's at least as dumb as she comes across here, and probably worse.

**nickster** · 08-11-2012, 03:48 PM

She's a CP judge and was elected in 2005 so she should be up for retention in 2015.

**BarryG** · 08-11-2012, 03:50 PM

A media outlet should press her for an explanation. It sounds like there is a very good chance she is getting a kickback somehow.

**John Goodman** · 08-11-2012, 04:00 PM

Yes investigate her and the attorneys involved in the case... Something shady must be going on

**raider.adam** · 08-11-2012, 04:28 PM

Why not? Fumo got less time because of the good things he did.

**torts** · 08-12-2012, 08:43 AM

He's going to find god in jail and come out a new man. Trust me. Just like in that ABC after-school movie.

**2happy4u** · 08-12-2012, 08:58 AM

Probably a relative somewhere along the line.

**nickster** · 08-12-2012, 11:18 AM

Originally Posted by torts

He's going to find god in jail and come out a new man. Trust me. Just like in that ABC after-school movie.

Correction: find god and become a constitutional scholar in jail.

**annie** · 08-12-2012, 12:26 PM

Temple University - 2010 Gallery of Success Awardees: Shirdan-Harris

In 1992, after working at a small entertainment law firm, Shirdan-Harris established her own practice,
handling contracts for clients in the entertainment industry and offering counsel to nonprofit organizations. She then joined the Laborers’ District Council Prepaid Legal Fund in 1999, where she oversaw the disbursement of a $3.5 million benefit fund to providers of legal services representing 6,000 construction union members. She remained in this role until joining the Court of Common Pleas in 2006.

**ArcticSplash** · 08-13-2012, 07:26 AM

I would be willing to entertain a running "Do Not Retain" list of Common Pleas judges next year and maybe one or two Muni judges, based on extremely and overtly lenient sentencing in criminal cases (CP), failing to withdraw from cases over conflict of interest (CP) in civil cases and also those running ancillary nuisance businesses (CP and Muni) or are doing other things that negatively impact quality of life here.

We don't have any judicial items on the upcoming November ballot obviously***, but it would be interesting to try to counteract our horrible method of selecting and keeping judges by burning the top 3 worst judge-surnames into the brains of the electorate with repetitive blogging, signature lines, republication in media, etc.

Given that people have the attention span of gnats, the list would need to be extremely short so only the worst of the worst are easy names for voters to recall (i.e. "Judge Singletary").

It might cause a judge or two to get sacked.

*** http://www.seventy.org/Downloads/Ele..._2008-2018.pdf

**Dave** · 08-13-2012, 02:41 PM

That would be awesome. Even the most politically engaged voters tend to have forgotten the names of judges they've read about by the time election day comes along. Having a link to send to people who ask for voting recommendations would be very helpful to many of us, I'm sure. I think Tom Ferrick did an article on Metropolis last time we had judicial elections, but there may have been too many names on his list for it to really be useful unless people printed it out and took it with them to the polls.

Originally Posted by ArcticSplash

I would be willing to entertain a running "Do Not Retain" list of Common Pleas judges next year and maybe one or two Muni judges, based on extremely and overtly lenient sentencing in criminal cases (CP), failing to withdraw from cases over conflict of interest (CP) in civil cases and also those running ancillary nuisance businesses (CP and Muni) or are doing other things that negatively impact quality of life here.

We don't have any judicial items on the upcoming November ballot obviously***, but it would be interesting to try to counteract our horrible method of selecting and keeping judges by burning the top 3 worst judge-surnames into the brains of the electorate with repetitive blogging, signature lines, republication in media, etc.

Given that people have the attention span of gnats, the list would need to be extremely short so only the worst of the worst are easy names for voters to recall (i.e. "Judge Singletary").

It might cause a judge or two to get sacked.

*** http://www.seventy.org/Downloads/Ele..._2008-2018.pdf

**ArcticSplash** · 08-13-2012, 03:10 PM

Yeah it's just easier to whittle it down to the absolute-worst. You can't expect Phila voters to clean out the entire judicial bench of bad apples.

But it should be easier to get 3 names to stick into people's heads and work on booting those 3. It would be a great social media experiment.

**Jayfar** · 08-17-2012, 07:34 PM

New sentence is 17-34 years

Community anger leads to stricter sentence for man who shot kids

**ArcticSplash** · 08-17-2012, 07:35 PM

Oh what... did she suddenly have a change of heart? Pfft.

**OffenseTaken** · 08-17-2012, 07:45 PM

What's worse: a judge who gives a laughably lenient sentence to someone who shot children, or a judge who had such a shoddy justification for that sentence that she had no problem revising it just to save face?

**BarryG** · 08-18-2012, 07:45 AM

Originally Posted by OffenseTaken

What's worse: a judge who gives a laughably lenient sentence to someone who shot children, or a judge who had such a shoddy justification for that sentence that she had no problem revising it just to save face?

Dunno but this "court watch initiative" sounds pretty good.

**Cya** · 08-18-2012, 08:05 AM

Originally Posted by Jayfar

New sentence is 17-34 years

Community anger leads to stricter sentence for man who shot kids

"We're pleased. This was never about the judge," said Deputy Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel. "It was about the community and having them step up and show her the impact that these type of incidents have in our community

."

What does Deputy Police Commissioner Bethel mean, "It was never about the judge?"
Of course it was about the judge!!! If she had half a brain she would have handed down an appropriate sentence to begin with, sent a clear message, and everybody could have went on with their life instead of packing a courtroom again.
The "community" relied on her to be a fair judge in the first place. She failed.

**mixiboi** · 08-18-2012, 12:17 PM

Originally Posted by Cya

."
The "community" relied on her to be a fair judge in the first place. She failed.

IDK, the community needs to show more anger with the whole thing.....They should been there day one wanted to see justice...

**Dave** · 08-18-2012, 09:12 PM

Originally Posted by Cya

."

What does Deputy Police Commissioner Bethel mean, "It was never about the judge?"
Of course it was about the judge!!! If she had half a brain she would have handed down an appropriate sentence to begin with, sent a clear message, and everybody could have went on with their life instead of packing a courtroom again.
The "community" relied on her to be a fair judge in the first place. She failed.

I'd say the sentence is still lenient. He could still get out by age 43, and we have plenty of 43 year olds in this city committing violent crimes. Let's hope he doesn't get parole.