NEW ORLEANS - One out of every two cases at criminal court gets delayed, that according to Court Watch NOLA. The watchdog group says that could keep innocent people in jail longer while undermining other cases against dangerous criminals.
The group's executive director Janet Ahern says the number of times cases are delayed is on the rise.
"We're going to see cases linger longer," said Ahern. "There is going to be a greater difficulty in prosecuting the cases, because the longer cases stay on the docket, the harder they are to prosecute."
In the first 6 months of 2009, the group found that 43 percent of court cases were delayed, or what is legally referred to as 'continued.' In the second half of the year, that number jumped to 52 percent.
Court Watch NOLA also took note of who was requesting the continuances. In the first half of 2009, state prosecutors asked for the delay 21 percent of the time, defense attorneys made the request for 38 percent of cases, and judges for 34 percent of cases. In the next six months, the state and defense managed to reduce their continuance requests, while judges increased theirs.
A spokesperson for the judges says the report gives an inaccurate depiction. Loyola law professor and former public defender Stephen Singer agrees.
"They're akin to what snake oil salesman would sell in the old west," said Singer. "They're like these magic elixirs, they're a hoax, they're a fraud."
Singer says the statistics are too broad to pass judgment and he adds the report puts too much weight on how long it takes cases to move through the system.
"You would not want the FAA to go out to airline maintenance hangers with people with stopwatches who knew nothing about airplane maintenance and airplane engineering …and go out there with a bunch of top watches and see who did it the fastest," said Singer.
On Wednesday, Eyewitness News checked the docket for criminal court, counting 55 different matters that were supposed to go to trial, but only 5 ever did.
"What that shows us is what our report actually has identified, that there are too many cases that are being continued for unknown reasons and that those matters need to get set for trial," said Ahern.
Singer points to the fact that there are often good reasons why cases have to be delayed such as police officers or witnesses being unavailable. He also says there simply may not be enough room for the additional cases now going to court, since the district attorney's office has dramatically increased the number of cases now being tried.
Court Watch NOLA is now pushing for judges to disclose exactly why cases are continued, requesting that they list the reason in the official docket.
