California Judge is Removed by Voters

One of the curious features of United States state court judges is that in many states they are elected, or appointed and then have to stand for election after a period of time. A judge in California was just removed (or "recalled") because of indignation over a sentence he handed down that was perceived as being too lenient. NPR's Scott Simon interviews a public defender who is worried that this will lead to judges being influenced by what the public will think when sentencing offenders. Mistakes can be made because the public's information might not be accurate. 4 min 25 sec, transcript available.