Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-11-19
TWO-YEAR DELAY
FACED IN POLICE
COURT JURY TRIALS
Inadequate Facilities Again
ForcefuIIy Illustrated by
U. S. Attorney.
PROHIBITION CASES JAM
SCHEDULE YEARS AHEAD
Persons Arrested and Unable to
Make Bail See Period of
Long Jail Wait.

Inadequate facilities for handling
Jury cases at Police Court were brought
to the fore again today when Assistant
United States Attorney Charles Muir
ray, in charge of the prosecution OF all
cases other than prohibition. announced
that his Office has approximately 400
cases pending for trials by jury. He
says that this represents a delay of
about two years in the trials OF those
who demand them now.
Assistant United States Attorney
David A. Hart. chief prosecutor of pro-
hibition cases, in announcing change
of policy about month ago, said that
the trials of violators of the prohibition
law faced a years delay. Although Hart
has combined many Of the old cases,
some Of them dating back three years
he is steadily losing ground and 1t now
appears that these cases face more
delay than was first announced.
Point Is Illustrated.
Murray used q Schedule for q jury
day last week to illustrate his point.
Fifteen cases were due to be tried on
this particular day. The Government
announced that eight were ready to be
brought before the jury. Only three
cases were handled on this day, which
SN@@~~N
were continued.
Persons who might be innocent Of the
charges on which they were arrested
are forced to remain in Jail for long
periods awaiting trial because there are
too many cases ahead of them and they
are unable to make bail. James Wise
was arrested by police october 19 and
charged with carrying deadly weapon
He was locked up and has remained
m jail ever since. Murray says that
many defendants undoubtedly seek
trials by the court rather than face q
wait in jail.
Cases Are Nolle Pressed.
The assistant United States attorneys
are forced to nolle PROSE- many of the
old cases because the arreSting police
have long since forgotten the incidents
of the arrest. There are several cases
in which the defendants have died be-
fore they are brought to trial, while in
several instances the police involved are
several instances the police involved are
ment.
A man was sentenced to serve eight
years in Jail when he pleaded guilty on
several charges of simple assault when
tried by a police judge three weeks ago
II he had pleaded not guilty and had
demanded jury trial. he might not
have been tried for two years, Murray
pointed out. The chances are that there
would not have been SUFFICIENT available
evidence to try the man at the end OF
this time and undoubtedly the penalty
would have been lighter.
Although there are the same number
of judges in Police Court this year as
there were In 1925, figures show that
these judges at the end of the year
will have handled almost twice as many
cases as in the former year. Sixty
three thousand cases were handled In
1925, while William A. Norgen, acting
chief clerk, said that this years total
vi exceed the hundred thousand mark
IT, number of cases have increased 500
per cent since 1902, when 10000 were
handled. The number has increased
greatly since 1920, when $4,000 were
recorded. The facilities for trying cases
have been increased very little during
this time.