(A) Upon completion of the investigation, the chairman of the Judicial Merit Selection Commission shall schedule a public hearing concerning the qualifications of the candidates. Any person who desires to testify at the hearing, including candidates, shall furnish a written statement of his proposed testimony to the commission no later than two weeks prior to the date and time set for the hearing unless sufficient cause is determined by the Judicial Merit Selection Commission for allowing the submitting individual's testimony after the deadline. The commission shall determine the persons who shall testify at the hearing. All testimony, including documents furnished to the commission, must be submitted under oath and persons knowingly furnishing false information either orally or in writing are subject to the penalties provided by law for perjury and false swearing.

(B) During the course of the investigation, the commission may schedule an executive session at which each candidate, and other persons whom the commission wishes to interview, may be interviewed by the commission on matters pertinent to the candidate's qualification for the office to be filled.

(C) A reasonable time thereafter the commission shall render its tentative findings as to whether the candidate is qualified for the office to be filled and its reasons therefor as to each candidate.

(D) As soon as possible after the completion of the hearing, a verbatim copy of the testimony, documents submitted at the hearing, and findings of fact must be transcribed and published or otherwise made available in a reasonable number of copies to the members of both houses prior to the date of the scheduled election, and a copy thereof shall be furnished to each candidate and anyone else upon request. A charge for these copies may be made as authorized in the Freedom of Information Act.

(E) A candidate may withdraw at any stage of the proceedings and in this event no further inquiry or consideration of his candidacy shall be made. All materials concerning that candidate including his report, transcript, application, materials, and other information gathered during the commission's investigation must be kept confidential and destroyed as soon as possible after the candidate's written notification to the commission of his withdrawal. The information concerning a withdrawn candidate also shall be exempt from disclosure pursuant to Chapter 4 of Title 30.

HISTORY: 1975 (59) 122; 1993 Act No. 181, Section 28; 1996 Act No. 391, Part I, Section 1; 1998 Act No. 388, Section 1; 2008 Act No. 219, Section 1, eff May 15, 2008.

Effect of Amendment

The 2008 amendment, in subsection (A), added the provision at the end of the second sentence relating to the time for submitting written statements of proposed testimony and deleted the third sentence requiring that the statements be furnished no later than 48 hours before the hearing.