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Q&A
Staten Island DA discusses reasons for case delays and impact on Rikers population
6:14:43
ยท
101 sec
Staten Island District Attorney Michael McMahon outlines several factors contributing to case delays:
- Discovery law reforms have led to increased case processing times
- Mental health exams (730 exams) can cause delays in case processing
- Limited number of defense attorneys handling serious cases in Staten Island
- Overall increase in caseload from under 5,000 to close to 7,000 cases
Michael McMahon
6:14:43
So, not to sound like a broken record, but we mentioned that discovery is certainly part of a reason for a case delay that we've seen over the last two years, would say, in particular.
6:14:56
And there we you've seen a spike in the overall cases.
6:14:59
Am I right?
6:15:00
Because I think roughly from under five thousand to now close to seven thousand, so it's directly related.
6:15:06
The court's OCA has spoken on this.
6:15:09
Judge Zayas has testified about this and the numbers that he's presented, so that is part of it.
6:15:15
We also see you know, sadly, in many cases, health is part of the of the, situation that people accused of a crime are dealing with.
6:15:27
And sometimes because people are awaiting for a mental health exam, seven thirty exams as they referred to, that adds for delay.
6:15:35
And that's something that could be looked at to deal with to have more resources to deal with those issues.
6:15:42
I'll also say this, and it's kinda unrelated to your exact work here, but, there are not as many, well, least in Staten Island, let me say this, cases, the longer cases we have and the reason that are I think that our homicide cases go to that three year to four year is because the defense attorneys themselves are spread to are spread thin, and so there are only a few who handle murder cases on Staten Island, and the courts are waiting for them to be freed up for the next one.
6:16:11
So that's part of it, and doesn't quite relate to government work, but that is what we see happening as well, just anecdotally why we think some cases sit in rikers for a longer period of time than any of us want.