Legal Delays

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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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. …

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