N.O. Judge Stalls More Prosecutions (AP)

[Eugene]

Source: Associated Press

N.O. Judge Stalls More Prosecutions

By MARY FOSTER
The Associated Press
Monday, May 7, 2007; 5:00 PM

NEW ORLEANS -- A state judge suspended the criminal cases
against nearly 100 people Monday over concerns they can't get
adequate representation from the city's struggling indigent
defenders office.

Judge Arthur Hunter Jr. halted persecutions of 98 defendants
and ordered the release of 20 who had been held in jail. Last
month, he suspended prosecution for 42 other poor defendants.

The charges were not dropped, he told dozens of defendants
in his court, but until they get lawyers they won't be
prosecuted.

-snip-

For months, Hunter has been battling what he sees as the
office's inability to adequately represent the city's hundreds
of poor defendants since Hurricane Katrina wrecked the
criminal justice system. The storm scattered thousands of
jailed pretrial inmates to prisons across the state, where
most waited for months for any contact with a lawyer.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/07/AR2007050701033.html

[youngdem]

1. We are screwn by our pathetic DA.

Plus, the indigent defenders' office is funded by traffic citations, and since there is very little police power to dedicate to traffic enforcement due to a reduced force and obvious other priorities, and since there is a crackdown generating more defendants, it isn't tough to see how we got in this mess.