NEW ORLEANS -- A Louisiana judge Thursday backed off for now a threat to release New Orleans inmates who have been jailed for months without court dates or lawyers, but said the district attorney must begin weeding out cases he has no chance of winning.
New Orleans has been beset with a huge backlog of cases since Hurricane Katrina. Judges can handle no more than six cases a day and can hold court only every other week because of repairs at the courthouse. Also, there are not enough public defenders to go around.
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On Thursday, he said, it is "not my purpose to flood the streets with criminals."
"The releases will be done on a case-by-case review, hopefully starting with the misdemeanors," he said. "But I have to warn that the Constitution makes no distinction between murder and misdemeanor."
Hunter insisted District Attorney Eddie Jordan sort through the
6,000 cases and figure out which ones he cannot win.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/31/AR2006083101249.html