How to Dispose of Felony Criminal Cases on an Average of 45 Days
This is a manual — a road map — for the handling of criminal cases. It is written primarily for judges, prosecutors, and defense counsel. But it is a must-read for anybody involved with the scheduling of criminal cases, and anybody involved with the pre-trial jailing (housing) of those accused of felonies.
In an era when legislatures are passing laws abolishing cash bail, and putting criminals — often violent criminals and recidivists — back on the street to await trials on their mere written promise to appear for trial, and to not violate any criminal laws while they are on "cashless bail," bringing major criminal cases (felonies) to trial expeditiously and fairly is more important than ever.
John Donald O' Shea served as Presiding Judge of the Criminal Division of Rock Island County, Illinois, a mid-sized Illinois county, for 8.5 years of his 26 years on the bench. He set up a system designed to bring all felony cases (including murders) to trial within 60 days. The system worked so well, that his average "time of disposition" (to dismissal, plea of guilty or 1st day of trial) of all cases on his docket was 45 days! He disposed of some 800 new felony cases a year for 8.5 years.
In this short, readable, 60-page book, Judge O'Shea explains the what he did, how he did it, and why he did it. And he explains in simple English what a judge must be willing to do to make his system work, and the support he will need from his Chief Judge.