Tag: criminal justice

Texas expands virtual court program for criminal cases

The Texas Department of Criminal Justice has announced plans to expand remote court appearances for inmates using videoconferencing technology. Rather than being transported to county courthouses for hearings and other legal proceedings, inmates would appear before the court using secure video.

Video hearings offer much in the way of efficiency and even safety, relieving the state of the burden of having to transport parties to and from the courthouse. But they still need to provide all the constitutional guarantees of due process. If the video technology is unreliable or if there is a real sense that not being in the courthouse deprives a party of his or her day in court, the program would need to be revisited.

These types of video hearings took off during the pandemic, and some states made the hearings available for public viewing on YouTube or their own websites. I watched a few during that period (mostly from Michigan), and the prisons offered inmates with a hearing a private, quiet space for the videoconference. If Texas can continue that tradition, this seems like a meaningful advance for all involved.

Effort to speed up New Mexico criminal cases receives pushback

The chief judge of New Mexico’s First Judicial District (covering Santa Fe, Rio Arriba, and Los Alamos Counties) has proposed a case management order (CMO) aimed at speeding up the processing of criminal cases within the district. The order was intended to go into effect no later than January, but concerted pushback from attorneys and police and delaying implementation.

The need for faster case processing is evident: the average criminal case in the First Judicial District takes almost 300 days to reach a resolution, as compared to 224 days in the Second District (covering Albuquerque) and under 200 days in some rural districts. But prosecutors and defense attorneys jointly asserted that the real problem is a lack of resources, which no CMO can fix. They also complained that the proposed CMO imposed rules that were inconsistent with procedures in other parts of the state.

Both sides may be right about the challenges, but both should also continue working toward finding creative and viable solutions to reducing the average time to case resolution.

Televising the Trump trials

Last week, a number of Congressional Democrats wrote a letter requesting that the Judicial Conference of the United States make an exception from its longstanding policy of not televising federal criminal trials. The reason for the exception: the defendant is one Donald Trump, and Americans have a right to see the criminal proceedings against him in their full glory.

I spoke to several media outlets (including the Washington Post and NPR) about the prospect of a televised trial. A few additional thoughts follow. Continue reading “Televising the Trump trials”

Illinois Supreme Court puts hold on cashless bail plan

The Illinois Supreme Court has stayed implementation of legislation that would eliminate cash bail in the state. The law known as ther Pretrial Fairness Act was set to go into effect on January 1. WTTW reports:

Roughly half of the state’s elected prosecutors had sued to stop the law from taking effect. On Wednesday, they won when Kankakee County Judge Thomas Cunnington issued an opinion that found the Pretrial Fairness Act unconstitutional. Cunnington said for the legislature to dictate pretrial detention procedures violated the separation of powers.

Cunnington’s opinion allowed the 65 counties that were party to the lawsuit to keep their current bail system in place.

But Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul said that Cunnington did not enter an injunction, so the 37 counties that were not part of the suit could move forward with cashless bail, and judges in all of Illinois’ 102 counties could choose to follow the Democrat-backed Pretrial Fairness Act if they so choose. That would have created a situation leading to a lopsided criminal justice system in which defendants would be treated with drastically different approaches where they were arrested.

In the short term, the state supreme court’s stay prevents inconsistent application of cash bail procedures across the state — a basic tenet of due process. The law’s long-term prognosis, however, is uncertain. Violent crime in Chicago is through the roof, and opponents argue that ending cash bail poses a clear risk to public safety.

Death threats made against children of judge in Rittenhouse trial

Wisconsin judge Bruce Schroeder has drawn considerable attention for his handling of the trial of Kyle Rittenhouse, who is accused of killing two Antifa activists and wounding another during a riot in Kenosha, Wisconsin in August 2020. 

For better or worse, judges in high-profile trials always come under the microscope. And some of Judge Schroeder’s behaviors during the trial have not inspire enormous confidence in his personal and professional discretion. But fair and reasonable scrunity is quickly being replaced by physical threats, and the threats here are extremely serious.

Judge Schroeder has received thousands of vile messages, many of them including explicit death threats. Some of those threats are targeted at his children, who are now receiving round-the-clock protection. However you feel about the substance of the Rittenhouse trial, these types of actions are completely unacceptable in civilized society. Let’s hope that each and every one of these goons faces his or her own day in court in the very near future.

Two ways of pursuing justice

This week, Jews around the world will read the Torah portion known as Shoftim (Judges). This particular section of Deuteronomy instructs the Israelites to establish judges and officers in their communities, and includes the famous injunction, “Justice, justice shall you pursue.”

Like many, I have long been fascinated and perplexed by this command. Why is “justice” repeated twice? And why are the people instructed to pursue justice rather than to achieve it? The answers that immediately spring to mind — the second “justice” is for emphasis, and the command to “pursue” a nod to the idealism of the rule — do not fit comfortably with the larger text of the Torah. The direct repetition of a word, for example, is not common in Biblical text, and traditional exegesis demands that the second use carry a separate and independent meaning. Over the years, I have heard and read many thoughtful takes on the issue. Perhaps, for example, the repetition of “justice” captures substantive and procedural justice, or justice for the individual and for the community, or social justice and justice under the law.

The term “pursue” is equally difficult. Granted, it is impossible for any society to actually achieve perfect justice; perhaps dogged pursuit is all that can be expected of us. But the Torah includes other commands that are equally inconsistent with human nature. “Do not covet,” for example, is an impossible task for mere humans to adhere to, yet it comes with no qualifying language. So why say “pursue” here?

These questions pop into my mind every year around this time, a natural consequence of reading Shoftim around the start of the new law school year. But this time, there was another reason to take a close look at the Biblical injunction to pursue justice. It came in the form of an extraordinary recent episode of Bari Weiss’s new podcast, Honestly. In this episode, Weiss and guest podcaster Kmele Foster examine the “Central Park Karen” story from last summer. They reveal that the simple, straightforward story that was presented to the public is in fact complex, nuanced, and oftentimes messy. And it raises all sort of difficult questions about how our society metes out justice, both in and out of court.

Continue reading “Two ways of pursuing justice”

Gunman opens fire at federal judge’s home, killing her son and wounding her husband

Several sources are reporting that a gunman came to the home of U.S. District Judge Esther Salas yesterday, and shot her son and husband when they answered the door. Her son, age 20, was killed and her husband was badly injured. Judge Salas was apparently in the basement at the time and was not hurt. The gunman, who was apparently dressed as a delivery driver, is still at large.

The motive for the shooting is unknown, although Judge Salas has presided over some high profile criminal cases since taking the federal bench in 2010. Unfortunately, attacks on judges and their families have happened before.

This is very sick, terrible news to start the week.

Federal courts issue guidance for reopening, including conducting jury trials

The federal courts’ COVID-19 Judicial Task Force released a detailed report on Wednesday, containing recommendations for conducting jury trials and convening grand juries during the coronavirus pandemic. This Bloomberg Law piece provides a bit of additional context.

The report relies on guidance from the Center for Disease Control, and acknowledges that district courts may be ready to open, and open more fully, at different times during the next few weeks. It is a careful, detailed, and thoughtful report. It also illustrates the complex issues that virtually every organization — public or private — is facing right now regarding reopening: cleaning, social distancing, virus screening, transparency, scheduling, travel safety, and so on. Ask any school administrator, business owner, local bureaucrat, or public official, and you’ll hear about the same predictive difficulties.

The bottom line: courts are navigating this crisis just like the rest of us. Preparation is essential, but only time will provide real clarity.

 

Singapore court sentences defendant to death via Zoom

Courts worldwide are using videoconferencing technology for a wide range of proceedings during the coronavirus pandemic, including (in some instances) trials. And disturbing new ground was broken this past week, when a judge in Singapore sentenced a defendant to death by remote video. The defendant had been found guilty of participating in a drug deal, and Singapore has a zero tolerance policy when it comes to illegal drugs.

This is probably not the place or time to reflect on Singapore’s draconian criminal laws and sentencing practices. But regardless of where one falls on the capital punishment debate, there is something especially dehumanizing about receiving a death sentence through a video screen. The judge (or jury) should have to look the defendant in the eye–face to face–when assessing such a punishment.

American courts have been experimenting with Zoom sentencing, and in fact a federal district court is scheduled to sentence a white collar defendant by videoconference on June 4. But that defendant is based in France and is hoping to avoid prison time altogether; it is night and day when compared to the Singapore sentence.

(h/t John McCarthy)

 

Oregon forges ahead with some jury trials

While most states are delaying trials or holding them via videoconference, Oregon’s courts are continuing in-person jury trials for many criminal defendants. Social distancing guidelines have been put into place, but there is much trepidation on the part of jurors and observers alike.

“It is very unusual,” said Paula Hannaford-Agor, the director of the Center for Jury Studies at the National Center for State Courts, a nonprofit organization that supports state court systems. “To the best of my knowledge, Oregon has been the only state that I’m aware of that has been doing trials.”

Across the country some of the orders limiting or halting court functions are set to expire, Hannaford-Agor said, while others states have closures or limited court functions that extend until June and even July. Though Multnomah County has reopened trials, neighboring Clark County, Washington, has decided to delay all trials until at least July 6.

“Jury service is the very definition of community spread,” Hannaford-Agor said. “There’s probably no better way to spread the infection than putting anywhere from 50 to 300 people in a room together sitting side-by-side for hours at a time.”

In Oregon, many trials have been rescheduled. But for some criminal defendants who are in custody that’s not possible. Oregon law has less flexibility than other states when it comes to speedy trials and no emergency provision to delay them. In custody defendants get the right to a [trial] within 60 days of their arrest.