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Re "Broken Justice in the Bronx" (editorial, April 22):
I strongly agree that it is indeed urgent to find a permanent solution to the case backlog. But you place far too much responsibility on my office. We do not control court calendars. We do not bring cases to trial "five years after the crime."
We are permitted to try cases when both sides are ready and the courts can accommodate us. We always have enough ready cases to fill vacant court parts. If we caused a five-year delay, speedy trial laws would lead to dismissal of the case or release of the defendant.
You use extreme examples to make your point, but it should be noted that swift trials for defendants and victims is our goal. It is the prosecution that usually suffers from lost witnesses and fading memories.
What also suffers are the personal schedules of diligent lawyers, who are at the mercy of defense and court actions that can sometimes result in lengthy periods of multiple and rescheduled trials.
The statistic about the conviction rate in Bronx jury trials is based on 3 percent of our cases. The more telling statistic is that in 2011, 88 percent of all indicted defendants were convicted by plea or trial. Furthermore, since 1990, Bronx violent crime is down 73 percent.
For decades, I have been requesting additional judges. Until the Legislature and the executive respond, we will cooperate with the court in the continuing struggle to coordinate the movement of cases to trial.
ROBERT T. JOHNSON
District Attorney
Bronx, April 22, 2013
To the Editor:
The crisis facing the Bronx County Courthouse is a symptom of a deeper ailment: the failure of harsh "tough on crime" policies that have led to the mass incarceration of millions of people, disproportionately from poor African-American and Latino communities.
In 1963, when the Supreme Court expanded the right to counsel in Gideon v. Wainwright, there were 217,000 people in prison. Today, our country incarcerates about 2.3 million people. The criminal justice system, and specifically indigent defense, has not been financed to keep pace with this explosive growth.
The country should invest in courts and public defenders to protect the right of both crime victims and the accused to a speedy and fair trial. We should also analyze criminal laws to determine which petty offenses can be reclassified or removed without affecting public safety. Ending mass incarceration is the only way to fix a justice system stretched far beyond capacity.
THOMAS GIOVANNI
New York, April 22, 2013
The writer is director of the Community-Oriented Defender Network at the Brennan Center for Justice.
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