MN Advisory Comm Exhibits 1-18 - Minnesota Judicial Branch

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and testify foi him, whether .m recommend’s that plea bargaining be
counsel has ~v&jgated the facts of abolished with& five years. What will
the case to see whether indeed he does replace it?
have a defense. The magic formula has At the end of a -day in which as a
been pronounced. The judge does not judge I have taken actions affecting
know what the facts are. Did the man for-good or III the lives of perhaps 13
really commit the offense? Even if or 20 litigants and their families, I am
there were a’ full-scale trial, truth drained. I walk out of the stale-smell-
‘ might not emerge. Many of the wit- ing. dusty c&.rtroom into the fresh
nesses have long smce disappeared. sunshine of a late sprhp day and feel
How reliable will their memories be? as if 1 were released from prison.. I
The policeman will say he did not breathe the soft air, but in my nostrils
strike the accused. The accused will is the stench of the stifling cell bloc@
‘say that he did. Friends and relatives and detention rooms. While I sip my
will say that the accused was with cool drink in the quiet of my garden, I
them at the time of the alleged crime. cannot forget the prisoners, with their
The victim, if he appears, will swear dry bologna sandwiches and, only a
that this is the person whom he saw drink of water provided at the pleasonce
briefly on a dark night eight. ure of the hot and harried guards
months ago.
Was Cottle really guilty? I will
never know. F&made bail. Will he
‘, The lawyers are in almost equal attack someone tonight or tomorrow?
ignorance. The prosecutor has the One reads the morning paper with
police report. The defender has only apprehension, It is safer for the judge
the vague and confused story of the to keep them all locked up. There will
accused. The judge is under pressure
to “dispose” of the case. There is a
be in outcry over the one prisoner
released who commits a subsequent
score card for each judge kept by the offense. Who will. know or care about
computer. The judges have batting the scores of possibly innocent
averages. Woe betide those who fail to prisoners held in jail?
keep pace in getting rid of cases. A This is only dne day in a diary&
1on.g trial to determine guilt or inno- Replicate this by 260 times a year, at
cence will put the judge at the bottom least 15,000 courts, and 10 or 20 or
of the list. The prosecutors and public 30 years in the past. Can one doubt
defenders also have their score cards that the operation of the iepl system
of cases disposed of. Private defense is slowly but surely strangling the law?
counsel-whether paid by the accused I must sit only three and a half
Dr appointed by the court and paid by more weeks in criminal court. But
the public-has his own type of score there is a holiday. So with relief 1
card. For the fee pai,d, he can give realize that it is really oniy 17 more
only so many hours to the preparation daks that I must sit there this terr+
and trial. of this case. He must pay his Next year I shall again have to take
rent, secretary and overhead. Ail of my turn.
the persons involved in the justice I - am _. reminded of Ivan Denisovich.
system are bound by the iron laws of Solzhenitsyn describes Ivan’s bedtime
economics. What can the defendant thoughts in a Soviet prison. “Ivan
afford for bail, counsel fees; witness Denisovidh went to sleep content. He
fees, investigative expenses? All of had been fortunate in many ways that
these questions will inexorably deter- day-and he hadn’t fahzn ill. He’d got
mine the cse that b presented to the over it. There were 3,653 days like
court.
this in his sente.nce..From the moment
The National Conference on Crimi- he woke to the moment he slept. The
nal Justice, convened in January 1973 three extra days were for leap years.”
by A-ttorncy Cenertli Kleindiemt.
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