Speedy Justice? What A Joke!

Speedy Justice Rant
(Originally Written May 29, 2011) - Update At The Bottom...

One of the great things about living in America is that we have rights given to us by the U.S. Constitution. Rights that allow us to speak freely, worship as we please, and be protected from injustices and those who would opress us. That's the theory, right? Too bad that at least where one of our constitutional amendments is concerned, the Sixth Amendment, it's a load of bunk.

The Sixth Amendment of the United States Constitution reads, "In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence".

So what exactly is a speedy trial? Three months? Six months? A year? With every case, there are different circumstances involved and some cases may take longer than others to come to trial. But surely it's not unreasonable to think that a competent detective and a competent District Attorney could manage to get their case together within a year of an arrest and be ready for trial.

It's not unreasonable, but it doesn't seem to be happening either. I spoke recently to a former police detective who informed me that the reason he quit working for the police department after close to fifteen years was the strong apathy he noticed in dealing with the prosecutors and attorneys. He noted that the lawyers he regularly dealt with didn't seem to care about whether the defendants in their cases were guilty or innocent of the crimes they've been accused of. All they (the prosecutors) wanted was a conviction, or as he so subtly put it, "another notch on the bedpost".

And his comments about the so called "public defenders" were even worse. They're not out to win cases and defend their clients. They're just there to do the job nobody else wants to do and to make sure they don't ruffle feathers with the D.A.'s office. The main goal seems to be to get a plea deal for their clients, so the prosecutors get their conviction, the public defenders can claim they're doing their job, and everyone is happy. Everyone that is, except for the supposedly "innocent until proven guilty" defendent who is generally kept sitting in the county jail for excessive lengths of time, subjected to disgusting, unsanitary living conditions with quite often four and five others crammed with him in a cell meant for two.

The prosecutors review their cases and decide if they have enough evidence to take the case to trial. If they feel they have a strong case, they usually move quickly upon it and it gets settled in a short amount of time. If the case is weak or circumstantial, they just wait it out. Who cares if it takes a year or two. Who cares if the defendent, who has not been convicted of anything yet, is forced to remain in the county jail for several months or even year and loses his job, his family, etc. and his life totally falls apart. The prosecutors know that if they wait it out long enough, the alleged offender will either cave in and accept a plea bargain deal and a conviction, or else he'll do something stupid while in custody, a reaction to being treated like an animal and being deprived of the most basic rights (all before he's been convicted of anything) and then they'll really have something to prosecute him with and hold against him.

It doesn't matter if he's actually guilty or not - a plea deal gets the defendant out of the cess pool that is the county jail and at least allows him to move on with his life. That's the reason why so many defendents end up accepting these deals instead of going to trial. Time is on the side of the prosecution and they make the rules. Wait for a trial. You're locked up and treated like crap with no end in sight. Plead to a lesser offense or accept a deal and you're still locked up, but you're out of the county and usually, there is an end in sight. And even if you're innocent, the public defender will tell you to accept the deal because he doesn't want to have to actually "defend" anyone and it makes his friends in the D.A.'s office happy.

Here's a few extra statistics to throw at everyone. This comes from a study based on NCDOC data. The study analyzed North Carolina Department of Correction data on nearly 10,000 felons sentenced in 1979. Of the sentences imposed, 44 percent involved probation only. Logistic multiple regression indicated that active sentence lengths were associated not only with the seriousness and number of crimes of conviction and the offender's criminal record, but also with age, race, sex, education, marital status, drug abuse, and length of time spent in pretrial detention before sentencing.

Data on time actually served in prison by felons released in 1980 are presented. An indepth analysis of court disposition in 12 representative counties showed that about half of the defendants charged with felonies never reached the indictment stage, a third had all their charges dismissed, 58 percent pled guilty to some charge, and only 6 percent completed jury trials. Plea bargaining was extensive for both charges and sentences. Defendants with longer pretrial detention times had lower odds of dismissal of charges and received more severe sentences if convicted. Indigent defendants with court-assigned counsel were more likely to be convicted and received more severe sentences for property crimes than did defendants who paid for their own lawyers. Sentences tended to be less severe for defendants who pled guilty than for those who went to trial.

Do you see what it says? If you try to wait it out in the county jail, you get longer sentences. If you use a public defender, you're more likely to be convicted than if you hire a lawyer on your own. If you take it to trial and actually make everyone work instead of just copping to a plea deal, you're screwed. And despite all the claims of "justice is blind", race, gender, income, education and the length of time already spent wasting away in the jail is all considered and factored in, usually NOT in the defendents favor. Justice is not the goal of our court systems. Not if these statistics are to be believed.

You're probably wondering what the entire point of this whole thing is. In a nutshell, I have a friend who was locked up, on a very serious charge, based on an allegation by a female acquaintance of his. It all boils down to a he-said / she-said case with no physical evidence of any type to back up the charges. The claimant has admitted (to others) that she was lying and even admitted it to my friend in a phone conversation that happened shortly after he was arrested. (Of course, as soon as the D.A.'s office learned of this call, they went back and allowed the acquaintance to change her statement and "explain" what she really meant.) I spoke to her a few weeks after my friend was arrested and asked her what was going on. Her only reply was "he made me mad!". Even the investigator from the Public Defender's office, after reviewing all the evidence he had access too, thinks it's a bunch of crap and has told officers and prosecutors exactly that. But none of it matters. The bottom line is, she got mad at him and made up some charges. And since my friend is an ex-felon (had just gotten out of prison), he had no way to defend himself from these charges.

And he's still sitting in the county jail two and one-half years later. It took over a year from the date of the arrest (and the start of his confinement) to the actual indictment. The court appointed "public defender" has not shown any interest in getting this case to trial, instead making suggestions that they "take a plea deal". Some defense, right? When questions come up about confronting the plantiff on the stand, if it does come to trial, the public defender just asks "why?". Even though there are recordings of her admitting that she lied about the things my friend is accused of. He doesn't care. The D.A.'s office doesn't care. The detective in charge of the case doesn't care (although if rumors that I've heard about him and the defendant are true, it's easy to understand why he doesn't care.)

It's all part of being in an area like this one. The prosecutors, the attorneys, the public-defenders, the court officials and the police officers are all friends, buddies and pals. It's the good old boy system in play and if you don't have money to buy your way out or know someone to pull strings for you and get in trouble for any reason, you're screwed. It's simple as that.

And if you happen to get charged with a serious crime, whether you did it or not, don't expect to find justice. Instead, expect to sit and rot, away from the sun, crowded with thirty - forty other people, in a small, enclosed area, sleeping four or five to a cell. Expect unsanitary living conditions, insect and spider bites, physical assaults and threats, and meals that you wouldn't feed a pack of stray dogs. Expect to be denied visitors and phone calls to the people who care about you. Expect to be treated like the lowest form of life on earth for at least a year and probably longer. And this is all BEFORE any kind of conviction.

Yeah, it sucks, but this is life in Laurinburg, NC and Scotland County. This is what they call "justice". I can think of a few other words to describe it, but why bother. It's the way the system works. And there's not a damn thing we can do about it. It's just too bad that the people, like my friend, are the ones who have to pay the price.

Update: Seven Months Later...

It's now been 1074 days since my friend was arrested and the 3 year Anniversary will be coming up on the 27th of February. And he's still sitting in the jail awaiting trail. There have been a few changes in the situation though.

The Scotland County Public Defender is no longer "defending" my friend. After 2 1/2 years of representing my friend, he removed himself from the case because there was a "conflict of interests" in that the Public Defender's office had defended the plantiff from drug charges a few years earlier after she was busted for drug possession. So another Attorney, this one from Raeford, NC, has taken over the case.

And there are a few other things that have happened as well that lead me to believe that the Sheriff's office is putting extra pressure on my friend to accept a plea-deal and take a conviction rather than continue to fight the charges and allegations against him - denial of basic rights and proper medical care, among other things. But that's a matter for his lawyer to take up and handle and as I understand it, he will be very shortly.

So time drags on and the case drags on as the broken wheels of injustice continue to turn. Over twenty-five years ago over in Robeson County, two young men, Eddie Hatcher and Timmy Jacobs, took over the offices of the Robesonian newspaper as part of a protest against the corruption and injustice that dominated the Robeson County government and legal system at the time. While I would never suggest that anyone do anything quite as drastic as Hatcher and Jacobs did all those years ago, I can certainly understand their frustration. It's just as bad (or worse) here in Laurinburg / Scotland County. My friend is walking proof of this. And the bad thing is, no one gives a damn. Welcome to Scotland County. Where is the justice? It sure as hell isn't here.

- Doug
2/6/12