In NY, special court for gun crimes
New York City will establish special courts for gun possession cases and create a police unit dedicated to gun-related investigations as part of an effort to cut gun crime, officials said on Tuesday.
Project Fast Track, unveiled at a City Hall press conference, is an attempt to ensure gun cases are prosecuted quickly and efficiently at all levels of the criminal justice system.
I’m all for enforcing gun laws on the books but not NY’s because they are capricious and a violation of gun rights. But the court will likely have problems, like it did when they tried this before:
The gun courts recall a similar effort in 2003, when a court was established dedicated to gun cases in Brooklyn.
While the court had initial successes, it eventually became overloaded with a backlog of cases, partly because of a new law increasing the minimum prison sentence for gun possession, making plea deals less likely. Court officials suspended the court in 2009.
January 12th, 2016 at 11:06 pm
A new Star Chamber?
January 13th, 2016 at 12:24 pm
Any problem with overloading the court can be resolved by using it only for prosecution of selected offenders, such as those donating to the wrong politician.