New Pa. court rule frees some witnesses from having to attend every hearing, easing intimidation risks

It will be harder to intimidate witnesses in the Philadelphia court system because of changes announced yesterday that will keep some witnesses from having to appear in court at every hearing.

Under a new statewide rule, "non-eyewitness victims of crime" won't have to appear at all preliminary hearings to testify in property cases, which makes up a significant part of the criminal docket, said state Supreme Court Justice Seamus McCaffery.

They will still have to testify at trial because "everyone has a right to confront their accuser," he said.

"But that right is impaneled at a trial level, not at the preliminary-hearing level," McCaffery said during an afternoon news conference.

He was accompanied by Common Pleas Judge Renee Cardwell Hughes, who headed a panel studying witness intimidation, as well as District Attorney Seth Williams and other legal minds.

The new code "will save thousands, and I mean literally thousands, of victims from showing up at preliminary hearings," McCaffery said. "Thousands of victims from taking time off from their work. Thousands of victims from losing time from their homes."

Williams said the code will also save money because police officers won't need to be in court before trial and thus won't be paid overtime.

The action was taken, McCaffrey said, as a result of a series of Inquirer articles about Philadelphia's court system. The series highlighted major flaws in the system - among large cities, Philadelphia had the nation's lowest felony-conviction rate - and found that a number of witnesses or their relatives had been killed in retaliation. It also pointed out that witness-relocation funding had been cut.

Cardwell Hughes said intimidation tactics, subtle and brash, happen all the time, including on Tuesday in her courtroom on a homicide case.

Although texting and photos are prohibited in her court, two people were found taking pictures with a smart phone of the judge and texting the names of two witnesses, she said. Both were apprehended and charged with contempt.