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John R. Hickman
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John R. Hickman is a superior court judge for Pierce County Superior Court, Washington.
[1] Hickman filed for re-election in 2016 and won automatically because he faced no challengers.
Elections
2016
Washington held general elections for local judicial offices on November 8, 2016. Candidates for district and superior court seats had to file for election by May 20, 2016. Primary elections were held on August 2, 2016, for six seats where more than two candidates filed for election.
Hickman won re-election without appearing on a ballot in 2016 because no challengers emerged by the May 2016 filing deadline.[2] In counties with a population that is greater than 100,000, if only one superior court candidate files for election for a judgeship, that candidate is automatically elected and the county does not hold a general election for the seat. According to the 2010 census, the following counties have a population greater than 100,000:[3]
2012 evaluation
The Tacoma-Pierce County Bar Association placed Hickman as 7th out of the 22 Pierce County judges, giving him a 92.2% positive rating.[4]
Noteworthy cases
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Sour sentence for trick-or-treat candy robbers
Trick or treat? Washington teens Zyion Houston-Sconiers and Treson Roberts chose "trick" on Halloween in 2012 and were each given more than two decades of prison time because of it.[5]
The teenagers—respectively 17 and 16 at the time of their arrest—stole 96 pieces of candy, a cell phone and a devil mask at gunpoint from various trick-or-treaters last year. On Friday the 13th of September in 2013, Judge Hickman of the Pierce County Superior Court sentenced them to lengthy prison terms. Though they were among a group of teenagers who committed robberies that night, two other teenagers escaped sentencing by testifying against Houston-Sconiers and Roberts while another pleaded guilty to robbery in juvenile court.[5]
Prosecutors proposed to the judge that neither boy be sentenced for their underling crimes (which included multiple counts of robbery) but instead serve only the mandatory sentencing enhancements added for their use of firearms. This brought what could have been a 45-year sentence for Houston-Sconiers and a 40-year sentence for Roberts down to 31 and 26 years respectively. These are still lengthy terms, as prosecutors thought the boys deserved, but significantly shortened.[5]
In August, a jury tried the teenagers as adults and convicted them of robbery, assault and, more significantly, found that they had been armed with a .22 caliber pistol. The state's mandatory gun sentencing laws dictated that over 25 years of prison time be added to each sentence.[5]
Houston-Sconiers and Roberts apologized for their actions that night. "I messed up. I'm here to take responsibility and ask for your mercy," Houston-Sconiers told Judge Hickman.[5]
Roberts' defense attorney Chip Mosley called the boys' actions "youthful indiscretion" and argued that even the shortened sentence was too long. Though Hickman was sympathetic, the gun sentencing enhancement laws made it clear that there was not much he could do.[5]
Hickman also expressed concern that "we’re lowering the bar when it comes to behaviors we cannot tolerate or accept." He felt that actions like those of Houston-Sconiers and Roberts serve not only to terrorize the individual victims but instill fear into other citizens hoping to enjoy the trick-or-treat tradition.[5]
This case was featured in Judgepedia's Courtroom Weekly: Halloween edition on October 31, 2013.
See also
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Pierce County Superior Court Judges
- ↑ Washington Secretary of State, "2016 Candidates Who Have Filed," accessed May 21, 2016
- ↑ U.S. Census Bureau, "Washington: Annual Estimates of the Resident Population: April 1, 2010 to July 1, 2013," accessed July 24, 2014
- ↑ The News Tribune, "Pierce County Judge Ratings: John R. Hickman," 2012 (dead link)
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 The News-Tribune, "Teens who robbed Tacoma trick-or-treaters to spend decades in prison," September 13, 2013
Federal courts:
Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals • U.S. District Court: Eastern District of Washington, Western District of Washington • U.S. Bankruptcy Court: Eastern District of Washington, Western District of Washington
State courts:
Washington Supreme Court • Washington Court of Appeals • Washington Superior Court • Washington District Courts • Washington Municipal Courts
State resources:
Courts in Washington • Washington judicial elections • Judicial selection in Washington
