It'd be easy for me to step up on a pedestal and say "if you're guilty, just admit it and move on". You see it so very often in the court system, where someone drags their case through every possible delay imaginable, finally see their case go to trial, they're found guilty and then they appeal. Rinse, lather and repeat.
A major point of contention in Alberta's justice system of late has been the lengthy delays some cases have seen. Some have resulted in stays (meaning the Crown could bring the charges back up within a year) or the charges are dropped altogether. Sometimes it's warranted. Other times, not so much. What's happened is the issue has become political. Some blame it on the lack of prosecutors. Others blame it on the shortage of judges, who are being forced to go to circuit courts in smaller centres, which increases their workloads even further. Others say it's the criminals who continually bog down the system with needless delays.
And you know what? Everyone's actually right. There is no silver bullet in this discussion.
Here's how a typical court case goes nowadays. Little Jimmy gets charged with robbing the 7-11 down the street. He's locked up for a couple of days, sometimes a couple of weeks, in order to get a lawyer. Then Jimmy and his lawyer wait for the Crown to get them disclosure (all the paperwork surrounding witnesses, police, evidence, etc). Depending on how big of a file that is, it could be a couple of more weeks, maybe a month. The defense will think it over and figure out if it's worth trying to have a bail hearing. That could take a couple of weeks. The lawyers may want to do an early psychiatric evaluation to see if Little Jimmy is even fit to go through the process. That could be upwards of 60 days.
So 3-4 months after the crime, we MIGHT be ready for a bail hearing. Once that's done, then there's the decisions of whether to have a trial by judge or judge and jury. Then they might opt to have a preliminary hearing, which is to determine if there's enough evidence to go to trial. That can sometimes last a week or two, depending on the severity of the crime. So maybe six months after the crime, we're now ready to find a trial date(s).
Here's the thing: lawyers are busy people. Crown prosecutors are working on any number of files, putting disclosure together, preparing cases, etc. Defense lawyers are running from courtroom to courtroom trying to keep tabs on every single file they have decided to take on. So getting them into a room together (at the same time) can be like eating soup with a fork. Now try sitting them down to figure out what dates they are both available. Sometimes, they might be working together on "possible resolution" (a fancy way of saying plea bargain). That can last a month or two, depending on how in-depth the conversations are and how serious the two sides are at trying to reach a compromise or agreement on what exactly happened in the crime.
Now we're 8-9 months after the crime and the lawyers have finally agreed that they can't come up with any kind of agreement and it's time to send Little Jimmy to a trial. Well, right off the bat you're facing backlogs in the system with courtrooms booked solid for a few months. It's January 21st today, so the earliest a judge is available is August. Nope. Defense lawyer has a 4-week trial starting. Alright. How about September? Can't do it. A key witness isn't available. Mid-October's the next available date, how about that? The assigned prosecutor now isn't available. Before you know it, we're into January 2014 before everyone's available at the exact same time. Almost two years after the crime. If you're lucky.
What we've seen happen is cases "brought forward" because all of a sudden something comes up and the trial dates need to be vacated. Before you know it, you're scheduling trials into April and May of 2014. I'm not kidding.
So Little Jimmy gets tried and is found guilty. But wait! His lawyer (which is actually his third lawyer as he's fired/lost contact with his last two and they parted ways) says something in the process was flawed. APPEAL!!! So a few months later, the case is back in court on an appeal.
It might lose. It might also win. And you guessed it: start the process all over again.
And everyone wonders why the justice system is bogged down and you're seeing trial dates years in the making. Rinse, lather and repeat...
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