Candidates for appeals court have civil debate

Meeting in a friendly debate Sunday, Sara Doyle and Mike Sheffield both said their legal experience makes them the best qualified for an open seat on the Georgia Court of Appeals.

Doyle, 40, an Atlanta civil litigator, and Sheffield, 59, a criminal defense attorney from Lawrenceville, are competing in the Dec. 2 statewide runoff for the appellate judgeship.

In the Nov. 4 election, Doyle led a field of seven candidates with 22.5 percent of the vote. Sheffield finished second, with 20.9 percent. The winner will succeed Judge John H. Ruffin Jr., who is retiring.

The debate was taped at Georgia Public Broadcasting. It will air at 7 p.m. Tuesday on GPB.

Doyle and Sheffield asked voters to look at the candidates’ experience before casting ballots in the nonpartisan race.

Eleven of the 12 appeals court judges have extensive experience in criminal law, and the court is lacking in members with experience handling complex civil matters, Doyle said. As a partner at the firm Holland & Knight, Doyle said she knows how to lead a team of lawyers to move cases efficiently through the court system.

“I think that makes me uniquely qualified,” said Doyle, who has specialized in education law and civil defense work. “That is what I have been doing over the course of the last 15 years.”

Sheffield said as a former DeKalb County prosecutor and public defender, he knows how to manage a large case load. That’s a good asset for a judge on the Court of Appeals, one of the busiest courts in the nation, he said.

Sheffield also said he has the most legal experience, taking 300 cases to trial and handling about 50 appeals. “That’s a good background for this position,” said Sheffield, former president of the DeKalb and Gwinnett bar associations.

One issue that has simmered over the course of the campaign is that Sheffield agreed to answer judicial questionnaires by the Georgia Christian Alliance and Georgia Right to Life, which has endorsed his candidacy. Doyle declined to answer them.

Sheffield, who has describes himself as a conservative constitutionalist, said he will be impartial and follow the law.

“I don’t see anything wrong with responding to questionnaires, especially when the question doesn’t relate to an area of the law the Court of Appeals handles,” he said.

Doyle countered that judicial surveys should focus on a candidate’s legal qualifications and not try to pin down a candidate on certain legal issues.

“I think that that goes against how we set up our judiciary to be independent,” she said. “I think it might give off the impression of having a bias, whether or not one exists.”