Broke Teens Rot in Chicago Jails for Years Awaiting Trials

[happyslug]

13. You miss the real reason for this delay, it favors the prosecution

As a general rule, the courts have held that a trial must begin within 180 days of an arrest. Continuances by the prosecution do NOT stop the running of such time, but continuances by the defense does. Thus by under-funding the Public Defender's office you force such Public Defenders not be take on the case till it is set for trial, and then the Public Defenders know they need more time will ask for more time. Such continuances request by Defense Attorneys do NOT run the 180 day clock and Prosecutors count on this (Remember the OJ Simpson trial? The Prosecutors were NOT prepared for trial on the 180th day, but the Defense was for OJ hired them day one, they had the six months to prepare for the trial, most Public Defenders are lucky to get six days).

In the OJ Simpson Trial the Defense was ready, the prosecution was NOT for the prosecution had come to rely on Defense motions for continuances because the Public Defenders do not have the fund to give their attorneys time to prepare once they are assigned a new case. The OJ attorney took advantage of the system and was one of the reason OJ was acquitted.

On the other hand, if someone can NOT make bail, he is also stuck with the Public Defender, who is often assigned the case right after he or she had finished her last one, and often days before the set trial date. To be prepared for such trials, the Public Defender has to interview the witnesses and review the evidence and that takes time, thus Public Defenders ask for the time and since it is technically a request from the Defense, any such delay is NOT counted against the 180 day rule.

Thus you end up with cases where someone served more then whatever the sentence would have been and given a choice, admit guilt and walk free for he or she had served the max time away, or stay in jail while the trial takes place on the grounds you did not do the crime, and if you are ruled to be NOT GUILTY, you have no recourse for the police can rely on "Probable Cause" for justification to keep you in jail till the end of the trial. Thus a lot of "Felonies" and "Misdemeanors" admittance is more an agreement to get out of jail then anything else. This favors the Prosecution.

On top of this a lot of the costs of prosecution are covered by the fines, fines best collected as a forfeiture of any bond upon conviction. Thus a lot of bonds equal the amount of the fine that the Court will want you to pay. If the bond does not equal the fine, it may be nearly impossible to collect the fine given most convicted persons have a hard time finding a job.

Sorry, the court system is paid for by filing fees and fines. Most Police Departments either rely on Fines for paying the Police Budget or it is a tremendous part of where their budget comes from. This is more true in Suburban America then any place else. Inner cities police often rely on taxes for their pay and thus can trace themselves in the days before Traffic Tickets became a steady stream of income. True Rural America either do without police OR rely on the State Police, who like Suburban Police are paid for by traffic and other tickets. Thus it is small towns and cities along with Suburban communities that rely on fines to fund themselves more then Urban centers and Rural areas.

Sorry, if you want to end this lock up system, we need to strictly follow the 180 day rule. If the Public Defender is NOT ready, the Judge must make sure he or she is and if it is do to the fact the case was given to the Public Defender to late, the case should be dismissed.

The more I think of it, the best solution would be to abolish the Public Defender's office and make the District Attorney the office that provides attorneys in such cases. A good attorney knows both how to prosecute and defend a case and if they can NOT do both, they should not be an attorney. The District Attorney should be an administrator who hires assistant DAs to be either prosecutors or defense attorneys as needed. Will this lead to conflicts? Yes, but such conflicts occur anyway for most Assistant District Attorney later go on into private practice. A good part of this is the Police would not know if an Assistant District Attorney is working to prosecute or defend the person they arrested. Any case should be assigned on a random basis and if an Assistant District Attorney does not want to take on a defense case, he has to show a clear conflict OR resign. That would STOP the practice of under funding the Public Defender's office, for the any money going to the DA, must also be spent on Defense. Yes, the attorneys in the DA's office will talk about their cases and their clients, but that occurs today anyway. Tell each attorney confidential information can not be reveal to anyone and that solves that problem (and if it is revealed, the attorney is fired and his "client" released).

I am sorry, I do NOT see any other way to make sure Public Defenders get the money they need to prepare to defend people within 180 days of the Client's arrest. You solve THAT problem, you solve the problem of people being held two to three years before trial.

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