Thursday, October 26, 2006
Page 6
EDITORIAL
Bob Henry
Los Angeles Superior Court Office No. 8
In the primary, we endorsed Los Angeles Superior Court Commissioner Alan Friedenthal for Office No. 8. Given his experience, knowledge of the law, and temperament, we viewed him as an ideal candidate.
He was ideal, that is, in terms of fitness, though not electability. His ballot designation as “Court Commissioner/Professor” was a puny one, in the eyes of voters, contrasted with Bob Henry’s label as “California Deputy Attorney-General” and Deborah Sanchez’s description as a “Criminal Prosecutor.”
Neither Henry nor Sanchez is an “ideal” candidate, in our view, in the sense of having all of the qualities one would want in a judge. But both have the background and know-how needed for the job.
Sanchez is a well-regarded supervising attorney in the Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office. She has been a lawyer for 19 years, and a prosecutor 16 years.
Henry was admitted to practice in December, 1973, and has been in the Attorney General’s Office since 1974. He has handled countless felony appeals, including four death penalty cases which he argued successfully before the California Supreme Court.
We favor Henry. During his more than three decades in law, he has handled cases more complex than the misdemeanors Sanchez prosecutes. While Sanchez surely is affable, and without any implied denigration of her, we observe that Henry is especially good natured, and we would anticipate that his would be a courtroom in which it would not be stressful to practice.
Copyright 2006, Metropolitan News Company