Blame de Blasio for NYC court delays

Every day in criminal courts throughout the five boroughs people wait. Defendants. Victims. Witnesses. Prosecutors. Lawyers. They wait for the opportunity to have their day in court — to defend their innocence; to bear witness to the harm done to themselves or others; to make their case on behalf of the people, or to hold the government’s feet to the fire on behalf of the rule of law.

In fact, waiting is what everyone in New York City’s criminal courts does most, and mostly it’s waiting for an available judge to oversee a trial. Many of those defendants are spending their time waiting on Rikers Island.

And now New Yorkers are waiting to see whether Mayor de Blasio, who is oddly refusing to appoint eight judges who could be immediately assigned to criminal court, is really serious about reforming our criminal justice system and reducing the population of Rikers Island so it can be closed, or whether it’s all election year talk.

In 2015, the last full year for which data is available, it took misdemeanor and other low-level defendants on average 564 days to get before an actual jury, or 474 days if the case was tried by a judge.

That is, for those defendants, prosecutors, victims and witnesses with the stamina to go the distance.

The chronic delay creates a culture where surrender seems to everyone the most rational option, particularly to defendants stuck on Rikers because they can’t make bail. Many take pleas just to get out and get on with their lives — regardless of the long-term impact on their job, educational and housing prospects, or even their immigration status.

Victims and witnesses, too, get tired of being ready to tell their story and putting their lives on hold while the system grinds on, making prosecutors unable to bring real perpetrators to real justice.

This is largely why few of the approximately quarter of a million non-felony cases brought yearly in New York City actually go to trial — only 161 jury trials and 315 bench trials in all of 2015. This is a system, but not a justice system. So where are the judges? Ask the mayor. He hasn’t merely neglected to appoint eight new judges who would be instantly available to help clear this tremendous backlog of cases — he is outright refusing to do so.

These appointments are available because eight New York City civil court judges were elected to the state supreme court, and the mayor is supposed to fill their spots until new civil court judges are elected and take office next year. These one-year, interim civil court judges are almost always assigned to the criminal court.

Prior mayors would re-appoint interim civil court judges when their one-year terms expired to fill the new slots that inevitably open every year, until a full 10-yearterm criminal court or family court appointment could be made.

The mayor’s rationale seems to be that rolling over one-year judicial appointments from year to year undermines judicial independence, and there aren’t enough qualified applicants willing to upend their practices for a one-year gig that won’t get rolled over from year to year. This is hogwash. Almost every appointed criminal court judge with a full 10-year term wants a promotion to the supreme court, either by election or by an appointment as an acting supreme court judge; at the very least they all want another 10-year term from the mayor.

Yes, it’s healthy for judges to have longer terms than legislators — but the marginal loss of independence from having a one-year term cannot possibly justify the mayor’s abdicating his solemn responsibility to maintain a fair, well-functioning criminal justice system by appointing a full complement of judges.

It’s also baloney that there isn’t a pool of qualified applicants willing and able to serve as jurists even if only for a year. There are many capable lawyers working in big firms, in government and in the judiciary itself who would very happily and capably serve a year as a judge in criminal court.

The mayor’s power to appoint judges is one even a President would envy. No legislative confirmation required. No pesky public hearings. No filibusters.

Just a willingness to do his job, and to keep his word about criminal justice reform.