Pre-Katrina prisoners may be freed

A judge says prisoners who were arrested in New Orleans before Hurricane Katrina struck and are still awaiting trial have been denied their rights for too long. He says he will consider releasing some of them at a hearing set for Aug. 29, the anniversary of the day the storm came ashore on the Gulf Coast.

“We still have people who are locked up in jail who have yet to see a lawyer, have yet to appear in court and haven’t been convicted of a crime,” Orleans Parish Criminal District Court Judge Arthur Hunter says. “We can no longer continue to wait.”

Defense attorneys and judges have warned for months that a constitutional crisis looms on two fronts in Louisiana: prisoners denied their right to an attorney, and prisoners denied their right to a speedy trial.

Prisoners call their long wait “Katrina time,” a term coined by people awaiting trial.

Hunter says the backlog numbers 6,000 cases. District Attorney Eddie Jordan disputes that but does not have a count of the pending cases.

“We think it may be closer to 3,000 cases, because the 6,000 figure includes cases that we know are inactive because the defendants are still at large,” he says.

Attorneys say they cannot fully assess the degree of the crisis because there is not a firm count of either the number of people still in jail without an attorney or the number of people who have been released but await trial.

“One of the staggering facts is that we keep finding more people in jail,” says Pamela Metzger, director of the Tulane Criminal Law Clinic, which has been assisting the pre-Katrina prisoners. “Every time we think we’re done, we’re not. I hope the numbers are dwindling. It’s impossible for us to know.”

Jordan says the criminal court has cleared about 300 cases since June, when it moved back to the second floor of the four-story courthouse, which was flooded during the storm. He says there have been about 25 jury trials, with a 65 percent conviction rate.

The court’s 12 judges have squeezed into six courtrooms, trading off every other week.

Hunter frequently has expressed frustration with the delays and recently summoned state leaders, including Gov. Kathleen Blanco, to appear in his court to explain why the state has not come up with the necessary funds to run the Orleans Parish public defender’s office. Blanco declined to appear in court; Assistant Attorney General Burton Guidry did appear, and he argued that the governor does not have authority to finance the state’s public defenders system.

“The only solutions I’m given are to either release the defendants or dismiss the charges,” Hunter says.

Jordan says he will appeal any order by the judge to release any prisoners.