Court Clears Man Who Waited 7 Years for Trial on Pot Charges

The New York Times ^ | 23 Jan 2018 | Alan Feuer

[Theoria]

It was after his third mental competency test, all of which he passed, that Joseph Tigano started getting desperate. After all, by that point he had spent six years locked inside the Niagara County, N.Y., jail, awaiting trial on a charge of growing pot. It would be another year before the trial began.

The wheels of justice are known for turning slowly, but they moved so sluggishly in Mr. Tigano’s case that on Tuesday, the United States Appeals Court for the Second Circuit issued a scathing opinion dismissing his indictment. In the opinion, the court said the case was the most egregious trial delay it had ever seen, implicating everyone whom Mr. Tigano had come in contact with: judges, lawyers, prosecutors, United States marshals, even a court reporter.

“No single, extraordinary factor caused the cumulative seven years of pretrial delay,” the appellate judges wrote. “Instead, the outcome was the result of countless small choices and neglects.”

[zeugma]

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?

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.

[LouieFisk]

“This is not the case of an innocent man finally being vindicated. He is a guilty man who is the unworthy beneficiary of the appellate court using the case to send a sharp rebuke to the prosecutors and lower courts over the delay of justice.”
—
Yup, bottom line.
Good, well reasoned comment, thanks.