Judicial Candidates Discuss the Issues

Judicial candidates James Farley and Colleen Toy White squared off for the first time over issues ranging from courtroom experience to the death penalty at a forum in Simi Valley on Wednesday.

The two candidates, who are vying for a vacant seat on the Ventura County Superior Court, fielded questions from about 30 members of the East County Bar Assn. in Simi Valley at the midday luncheon.

The audience questioned the candidates on how they would reconcile their convictions and their professional associations with a job that requires impartiality.

Farley, who is a defense attorney and an outspoken opponent of the death penalty, said he would sentence a defendant to death if the situation required it.

“I believe that handing down that sentence would be very difficult for me morally, but as a judge I would have the responsibility to pass that sentence in certain circumstances,” Farley said.

White, who has spent her career with the district attorney’s office and who dubs herself a “strong supporter of the death penalty,” said she would have no trouble handing out that sentence.

When asked if her career as a prosecutor would present a conflict for her as a judge, she told the audience to look to history for the answer.

“There have been a number of quality judges who have come out of the district attorney’s office--or for that matter, from the public defender’s office,” White said. “I don’t think that it would pose a conflict.”

A number of questions submitted to moderator Nancy Goldstein focused on the issue of courtroom experience.

Farley said he has represented hundreds of clients in both civil and criminal cases in Superior Court, while White has had limited experience trying court cases and has worked primarily as an administrator.

But White argued that her experience as a prosecutor has placed her in the position of making “quasi-judicial” decisions about the merits of the office’s cases on a daily basis.