Delay Is A Terrible Thing. But It’s Not The Only Thing.
Does delay affect different groups in substantially different ways? If so, should constitutional guarantees of trial within “a reasonable time” result in different standards for different groups? The Supreme Court of Canada, in R. v. K.J.M., 2019 SCC 55 answered yes to the first question, putting significant emphasis on the subjective and practical experience of delay on young offenders. However, it answered no to the second question …
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Timeliness Requires More than Great Leaders
Sir Thomas More, the hero of A Man for All Seasons, is also a hero in the lesser known history of timely justice. In his two and a half years as Chancellor of England he worked with an alacrity that eliminated the backlog left behind by the 14-year chancellorship of Cardinal Thomas Wolsey. This achievement gave rise to a rhyme: When More some time had …
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Too Late to Make it Right
In 1988, nearly a year before the fall of the Berlin Wall, Leonard Forte was convicted in Vermont of repeatedly raping and molesting his daughter’s twelve-year-old friend. Ten months later, the trial judge ordered a retrial on the basis the female prosecutor was “overly emotional” in her conduct of the case. Thirty years later, Forte was living in Florida, having never faced a new trial. …