I do not agree.
Perhaps not applicable in this case as I don’t know what sort of evidence was presented when he finally got a trial, but in general there is bound to be a degradation and a decreasing reliability of any eyewitness testimony either for the defense or the prosecution, or eyewitnesses may have even died after seven years. There are also concerns surrounding the validity and chain of possession of any physical evidence after such a long time.
But what I find the most egregious is this:
It was at this point that a strange case took an even stranger turn. In January 2014, Mr. Tigano’s standby lawyer filed a motion asking the court to force her client to take a third competency test. She was concerned, the motion said, that “in refusing to plead guilty and insisting on his right to a trial,” Mr. Tigano was acting “imprudently.” Judge Skretny referred the matter to one of his magistrates, saying, “Whatever time it takes, it takes.”
The magistrate ordered Mr. Tigano to undergo a 15-day examination at Manhattan’s federal jail — and that, too, was delayed when the warden there reported that the jail had a “high volume of cases.” When he finished the test on May 2, 2014, he was once again deemed fit to stand trial. But instead of returning him to Buffalo, the Marshal Service, which often transports prisoners, “seems to have lost track” of him, the order said. He missed two pretrial hearings, which led to more delays.
So insisting on one’s Constitutional right to a trial by jury now makes one crazy? Having a court appointed attorney do this is OK?Then having him deemed fit to stand trial, getting "lost"? How does one "lose" a prisoner?
The same way foster children are lost.
Yup. Pretty astounding.
Of course, there are always folks around that will tell you that anything at all is OK as long as it's in the name of the war on drugs.