In the Interest of Justice

There was a brief moment of confusion in Poughkeepsie City Court late one Thursday morning before the coronavirus crisis shut down regular court business. A middle-aged Latinx man had his name and case number called by the clerk, and he rose from his seat behind me, walking to the front of the courtroom so that he was standing next to the public defender. This man was to be arraigned for loitering for drugs, in violation of a local ordinance. As the judge began the proceedings for this case, a voice from behind me interjected: “He doesn’t speak English.”

This was the voice of the defendant’s friend who had come to support him in court that day. With no interpreter present, Judge Volkman asked if perhaps the case should be rescheduled to another day when an interpreter could be provided. The Corporation Counsel for the City of Poughkeepsie, who had just entered the courtroom for this one case and was presumably getting a look at it for the first time, explained that this wouldn’t be necessary. Citing a problem with the ticket that was issued to the defendant for the charge, he moved that the case be dismissed “in the interest of justice.” The defense and the judge accepted this motion, and the defendant was able to walk out of the courtroom with the charge dismissed.

This example of prosecutorial discretion was certainly a welcome sight. Most days in court seem to go by in a flurry of arraignments, extensions on payments, and bench warrants issued for defendants who failed to appear. My time observing in court, while brief, has taught me that a defendant can often end up in court countless times for something as minor as loitering (in this case, supposedly for drugs). The sentence for an infraction like this is often a fine. Those who lack the money to quickly pay off that fine in full are required to come to court on a monthly, or sometimes biweekly, basis to ask for an extension. These recurrent court appearances can be onerous, putting a defendant’s job at risk or making it difficult for them to balance childcare responsibilities.

Thankfully, one defendant did not have to worry about that today, as the court acted “in the interest of justice.” In this epidemic—and afterwards—we need more prosecutors to exercise their discretion to reduce the burdens our criminal justice system places on low-income members of our community.