Delays in Courtrooms are Now the Norm

The Brennan Center Fair Courts E-lert summarizes news stories and editorials related to the independence of judges and the courts, including material attacking, defending, and concerning the judiciary.

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BUDGET

The New York Times features a piece that begins, “The Bronx courts are failing.” The article argues that courts in New York are crippled from budget cuts, and shows how delays are the new normal for court systems. The article continues, “With criminal cases languishing for years, a plague of delays in the Bronx criminal courts is undermining one of the central ideals of the justice system, the promise of a speedy trial. At a time of slashed judicial budgets across the country, the Bronx offers a stark picture of what happens when an overwhelmed justice system can no longer keep pace: Old cases pile up, prosecutions fail at alarming rates, lives stall while waiting for court hearings and trust in the system and its ability to protect the public evaporates.” The article continues with specific cases, and the damage that is done when cases languish: “In the bodega that night in 2007, a man in a T-shirt and jeans happened to be buying NyQuil when Robert Gaston was shot three times in the chest. Back then, he was the perfect witness: an off-duty cop. He said he had seen the gunman’s tattoos. But in five years, a lot of things can happen to a case in the Bronx. In 2010, Officer Marco Sang, the perfect witness of 2007, had been one of dozens of officers caught fixing tickets. The Police Department had disciplined him after he gave evasive answers. The lawyer for the man with the teardrop tattoos knew a gift when he saw one. ‘This whole case is Marco Sang,’ he told the jury. ‘Marco Sang is a liar.’”

Source: William Glaberson, Faltering Courts, Mired in Delays, New York Times, April 13, 2013.

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