It is all done with a bit of political chicanery called the judicial convention.

Whether the Goetz case will be an issue at the judicial convention later this month was not clear.

"At judicial conventions, he knows where every delegate is."

Republican primaries will be for party offices, like delegate or alternate to the judicial convention.

He is seeking the nomination for a full 14-year term at the Manhattan Democratic judicial convention.

Nominees are chosen at party judicial conventions whose delegates come overwhelmingly from political clubs.

The delegates then attend a judicial convention and choose the candidate dictated by the party apparatus.

The panel recommends three candidates for each court vacancy, leaving the final choice to the judicial convention run by party bosses.

Only a few decades ago the Democratic county leaders could routinely impose their choices for offices ranging from judicial convention delegates to mayor.

Normally it would also control the judicial convention to select two State Supreme Court nominees.

In New York, such justices are elected, and under the law, candidates receive a spot on the ballot at party judicial conventions.

Meanwhile, party leaders would also be collecting signatures on petitions to nominate delegates to a "judicial convention."

Candidates earn spots on the ballot not through primaries, but through judicial conventions, over which party leaders exercise almost total control.

Assemblyman Dearie said it was the first time in many years that the Democratic county chairman did not control the usually obscure judicial convention.

German officials said a new trial in Germany would be lawful because Somalia is not a signatory to international judicial conventions.

Judicial candidates are nominated by delegates to a judicial convention that is controlled by party leaders.

The chosen delegates are then sent to the judicial convention for the judicial district in which the assembly district is located.

At stake is the selection of Supreme Court nominees at the judicial convention on Sept. 28.

The judicial convention faces the unpalatable choice of rejecting either Justice Crane or the basically enlightened screening process.

Because that is exactly what the New York judicial convention system does, it violates the First Amendment."

The judicial convention, long held in a grimy courthouse jury room and in virtual secrecy, took place in an auditorium.

Sentencing of Mr. Goetz before the judicial convention would almost certainly have made the case an issue, several Manhattan politicians said.

Instead of being nominated in a primary election, candidates are nominated in little-noticed judicial conventions held shortly after the primaries.

Parties would retain plenty of influence over the choice of Supreme Court justices at judicial conventions, but the system would be more open.

The Brooklyn Democrats' judicial convention, which includes a small number of delegates representing Staten Island Democrats, is by no means unusual.