Posted on 05/15/2005 5:35:50 AM PDT by 2Am4Sure
In Philadelphia courts, year after year, half of all serious criminal cases - felonies such as murder, rape and robberies - are dismissed before they even get to trial.
Factor in cases dismissed once they reach Common Pleas Court, and it means that only four of 10 Philadelphia felony cases, on average, end in a felony conviction.
The relatively high dismissal rates, a central issue in the race for the job of Philadelphia's top prosecutor, were confirmed by data recently released by court administrators in response to a long-standing Inquirer request.
If the rate of dismissals is now clear, the reasons behind them aren't.
Few in the justice system - the judges, prosecutors, defense lawyers, police - agree on whom to blame other than the other guys.
Judges blame weak cases, prosecutors blame lenient judges; defense lawyers blame an overzealous district attorney.
"The fact is, if half the cases are being thrown out without a hearing, that's a system failure that every single member of that system needs to accept," said Bradford Richman, a former Philadelphia prosecutor who is now a Montgomery County assistant district attorney.
"Nobody likes to deal with that," said Richman, who worked on criminal justice issues under former Police Chief John Timoney. "They like to point fingers at each other."
Philadelphia's felony dismissal rate is unusually high, studies suggest.
A U.S. Department of Justice study of courts in the nation's largest urban areas found in 2000 that Philadelphia courts had the highest rate - 55 percent - of felony cases that ended in either a dismissal or an acquittal.
(Excerpt) Read more at philly.com ...
The problem in Philadelphia is too many guns.
ping
No no no. Not enough government money.
"Few...agree on whom to blame other than the other guys."
Hey, these sound like my vendors' tech support people!
Judges blame weak cases, prosecutors blame lenient judges; defense lawyers blame an overzealous district attorney.
we need safer guns and safer bullets....
Simple answer: The Mayor's staff needs to be working in the office, not defending themselves in court........ ;^)
Sounds like EDS.
Example - the Christians arrested at the homosexual event - dismissed.
LOL!!!
Jocelyn Elders is vindicated I see LOL!! :)
that won't work....
Yep.
"Simple answer: The Mayor's staff needs to be working in the office, not defending themselves in court........ ;^)"
Or, alternately, one could argue they do less damage hamstrung in court. Gotta give John Street credit where it's due--he's a cagey SOB. Prosecutors still haven't laid a glove on him personally, even with all the corruption in his administration.
Massiah-Jackson.
One Clinton judicial appointment was in the news in the Philadelphia area in late March when the appointee, Frederica Massiah-Jackson, withdrew her nomination after it became clear during Senate Judiciary Committee hearings that she would not be approved. Now, that's really something, for the Politically Correct U.S. Senate to balk at approving a judge who is not only female but also Black.
Actually, the Senate already had approved her appointment last fall, shortly after Clinton nominated her. In the recent Senate hearings her appointment was being reconsidered. How did that come about? Let me tell you.
For the past 15 years Massiah-Jackson has been a judge on Philadelphia's Court of Common Pleas, and she's made quite a reputation for herself as a Black racist who always sides with Black defendants -- and in Philadelphia that means most criminal defendants. She curses and swears at White prosecutors and lawyers in the courtroom, but that's not the reason they persuaded the Senate to reconsider its approval of her nomination and then showed up at the Senate hearings to testify against her; what motivated them is her habit of refusing to convict or to punish Black career criminals. Philadelphia prosecutors cited case after case in which her behavior in the courtroom was so outrageous as to be almost beyond belief.
Massiah-Jackson.
One Clinton judicial appointment was in the news in the Philadelphia area in late March when the appointee, Frederica Massiah-Jackson, withdrew her nomination after it became clear during Senate Judiciary Committee hearings that she would not be approved. Now, that's really something, for the Politically Correct U.S. Senate to balk at approving a judge who is not only female but also Black.
Actually, the Senate already had approved her appointment last fall, shortly after Clinton nominated her. In the recent Senate hearings her appointment was being reconsidered. How did that come about? Let me tell you.
For the past 15 years Massiah-Jackson has been a judge on Philadelphia's Court of Common Pleas, and she's made quite a reputation for herself as a Black racist who always sides with Black defendants -- and in Philadelphia that means most criminal defendants. She curses and swears at White prosecutors and lawyers in the courtroom, but that's not the reason they persuaded the Senate to reconsider its approval of her nomination and then showed up at the Senate hearings to testify against her; what motivated them is her habit of refusing to convict or to punish Black career criminals. Philadelphia prosecutors cited case after case in which her behavior in the courtroom was so outrageous as to be almost beyond belief.
No no no. Too many fun things are illegal.
Look at what it's done to MY little hometown (and others) by allowing liberal judges to ship their recovering heroin addicts up to Williamsport for "recovery". Instead of doing prison time, they simply formed the "heroin highway", which has ruined Williamsport, sucked the life out of it's youth, and put businesses out of well, business.
Who to thank? The fatass governor Rendell and his cronies on the bench in Philly, and an abiding Dem Ex-Mayor/Slumlord of Williamsport named Jessie Bloom.
Crime in Williamsport is to the point where you don't dare go downtown at night and if you take a wrong turn, you're in no less trouble than you are in Miami or Philly itself.
Growing up in Central PA, we used to say that Philly was actually part of Jersey and Pittsburgh was actually part of Ohio. It'd be great if they could actually make it truth.
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