If your son or daughter were charged with a serious crime, how long should they sit in jail awaiting a speedy trial? One year? Three?
There are places on this earth where the government can put someone in jail and hold them for six years without trial. North Korea. Iran. Until the Aaron Fisher case, I had not thought that America was such a place.
The former and current Miller County prosecutors fault Judge Joyce for dismissing the charges against Aaron Fisher. Judge Joyce was not the original judge on the case – she accepted an appointment on the case after it had already been pending for five years. Why do the Miller County prosecutors believe that it is OK for them to charge a person, have him placed in jail, and then held without trial for six years? Why do the prosecutors think that crime victims should wait for justice for six years? If six years is not enough time for the Miller County prosecutors to be ready for trial, how much time do they need? Ten years? Fifteen? Why do the prosecutors not fault the Miller County judges who allowed the case to languish for five years? Now, now that the case has been dismissed, the prosecutors say that they took this case seriously and that they did their level best to consider the interests of the accused and victims. Actions speak louder than words, and the fact is that they had the case for six years and did not or would not get the case to trial. I find it offensive that the prosecutors want to blame Judge Joyce for their own failures and the failures of the Miller County judge. If the Miller County prosecutors want someone to blame, they should start by looking in the mirror.
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Representative Rocky Miller is reviewing the case to see if Judge Joyce should face impeachment. If Representative Miller is serious about investigating, his time would be better spent looking at the court system in Miller County. Why aren’t prosecutors ready for trial when they have had six years to prepare? Why can’t the Miller County courts get a case to trial in five years? Why do people sit in the Miller County Jail while their court cases languish? Does it have anything to do with the $38 dollar per day fee that Miller County charges people for every day they spend in the Miller Jail awaiting trial?
Crime victims deserve better than what Miller County courts are providing. Persons accused of crimes deserve better. Taxpayers deserve better.
If the government can jail a person for six years without trial, the right to a speedy trial is meaningless. Countless people have sacrificed their lives defending our Constitution – including the right to a speedy trial. For the Miller County prosecutors to deem this right an inconvenience to be ignored at their leisure, that dishonors those who fought and died protecting that right. Judge Joyce should be commended for following the Constitution, and if it were your son or daughter, you would demand nothing less.
Respectfully,
Justin Carver
District Defender
Area 19 Public Defender
