Task force urged to probe Philadelphia courts

The chairman of the Pennsylvania Senate Judiciary Committee called Monday for a bipartisan task force to scrutinize the Philadelphia courts to make sure they deliver justice.

"We just want an efficient, fair justice system," said Stewart J. Greenleaf, a Republican. "It's not about the conviction rates; it's whether justice is being done in our courts."

Greenleaf detailed his agenda after a legislative hearing, contentious at times, that his committee had scheduled to explore an Inquirer series, published in December, that portrayed the Philadelphia court system as beset by low conviction rates, rampant witness intimidation, and a massive fugitive problem.

"We're going to use that as the blueprint," he said of the series. "These are the issues that have been raised. How do we address them?"

Greenleaf, whose district includes parts of Bucks and Montgomery Counties, said he would seek legislative approval for the task force to work with the Joint State Government Commission, an independent research arm of the legislature that has examined issues ranging from wrongful criminal convictions to child safety.

He said the task force, which could recommend new laws or enhanced funding for programs such as witness protection, would complement the 12-member blue-ribbon commission recently appointed by the state Supreme Court to oversee an overhaul of the courts.

The high court already has issued a series of orders that gave the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office more time to put on cases and to curb what Chief Justice Ronald D. Castille called "gamesmanship" by the defense bar. Castille, a former city district attorney, and other critics say some defense lawyers seek spurious delays to wear down victims and witnesses.

At the four-hour hearing, held at the Philadelphia Bar Association conference room in Center City, witnesses sharply disagreed about whether the criminal-justice system was indeed in crisis - or merely the target of overblown and unproven criticism.

At the session's start, State Sen. Michael J. Stack, a Democrat from Northeast Philadelphia, said he was alarmed by the newspaper's findings.

"Their research is extremely comprehensive," he said. "Their research is incredible - and incredibly disheartening."

The series analyzed court data from the Administrative Office of the Pennsylvania Courts. It also drew upon data from the U.S. Justice Department and other sources.

Stack, a lawyer, said he was appalled to read that prosecutors and defense lawyers alike had said witness intimidation was widespread in Philadelphia courts, affecting virtually every case of violent crime.

"This is an outrageous, vile, and disheartening fact," he said, calling it "totally unacceptable."

In testimony, District Attorney Seth Williams, state Supreme Court Justice Seamus McCaffery, and a leader of the Fraternal Order of Police described the system as tilted against victims and witnesses, mired in delay, and undermined by fugitives who flouted bench warrants by the thousands. McCaffery, a former administrative judge in Philadelphia Municipal Court, has been working closely with Castille to overhaul the city courts.

But defense lawyers, led by Ellen Greenlee, chief of the Defender Association of Philadelphia, argued that Williams and the Supreme Court were ramrodding through changes in judicial procedure, recklessly stripping away important rights of the accused, and shutting out any input from the defense bar.

Greenlee also criticized The Inquirer, calling its reporting unreliable and driven to generate headlines. At one point, Greenlee took note of the paper's financial troubles; it is in Chapter 11 reorganization proceedings in federal court.

"It's interesting to note that since The Inquirer's business is in a tailspin, they've now decided to have a new business - which is managing the Philadelphia courts," Greenlee said. "I wish them good luck in that, better luck than they've had in keeping The Inquirer alive."

Greenlee characterized one key finding of the newspaper's reporting as "absolute nonsense" - the paper's conclusion that only 20 percent of violent-felony cases ended in a conviction on a felony charge.

"If we were winning 80 percent of our felony cases, we would be deliriously happy," she said.

After she testified, Greenlee said in an interview that she had no independent figures on outcomes in the Philadelphia courts. But she said her instincts told her the newspaper's conviction figures were incorrect.

In one part of its analysis of the official court data, The Inquirer tracked the outcomes of 16,116 cases filed in 2006 and 2007 in which the defendants were charged with the felony crimes of murder, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault. Of that group, only 3,299 defendants - 20.4 percent - were found guilty of a felony.

Nearly two-thirds of the 16,116 defendants beat all charges entirely, the newspaper found.

The system's overall low conviction rate - rock bottom among large American counties, according to the U.S. Justice Department - was the result primarily of the failure of cases in the lower Municipal Court, not in the higher Common Pleas Court.

Of cases that collapse, 82 percent do so in Municipal Court, the paper reported. Judges at this level - akin to district justices in the suburbs - decide whether there is enough evidence for a full trial in Common Pleas Court.

Marsha H. Neifield, the president judge of Municipal Court, did not testify at the hearing, though she had been invited.

In an interview, she said a personal obligation had prevented her from appearing at the session.

D. Webster Keogh, the administrative judge of Common Pleas Court, pointed out in his testimony that the conviction rate in Common Pleas Court was 75 percent or more.

"The Common Pleas Court is not broken," he said. "The Common Pleas Court is not in crisis. The Common Pleas Court is not dysfunctional."

Questioned by the Judiciary Committee members, Keogh said he could not gauge the severity of the problem of witness intimidation in Philadelphia.

"It exists," he said. "To what level, to what extent, I think would be better addressed to law enforcement or the district attorney."

Keogh also took a swipe at The Inquirer.

He said he welcomed the review of the courts under way by the Supreme Court's panel. This, he said, would be a review by experts who were "independent - not looking to win prizes for writing something."

John McGrody, vice president of the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 5, said the union welcomed the Judiciary Committee's interest in the Philadelphia court system.

"Our officers are upset," he said. "They go to court on a daily basis. They participate in the process. There's a feeling among our members that the judicial system doesn't work in Philadelphia."

A chief concern, he said, was the city's ineffective bail system. The Inquirer reported that there were 47,000 fugitives wanted on bench warrants for skipping court in Philadelphia.

To track them down, the courts have a warrant unit of just 51 officers.

When fugitives are caught, they typically face no penalty. McGrody, a 22-year veteran who has served as a patrol officer and as a detective, told of officers who picked up someone wanted who had jumped bail on a drug charge, only to watch him assigned a new court date and sent on his way.

"That's not a deterrent at all," McGrody said.

People who have skipped court owe the city $1 billion in forfeited bail, but the city has made virtually no effort to collect that money. Last year, after the city moved to hire a collection agency to go after the debt, officials said that the plan was stalled by poor record-keeping in the office of the Clerk of Quarter Sessions.

This office, now being absorbed by the court system, had been a key agency entrusted with keeping records for the courts. Clerk Vivian T. Miller recently quit in midterm amid strong criticism of her performance.

As McGrody lamented the bail system, senators on the panel shook their heads.

"Fiscally, when we're looking for money, that's a huge issue," said Stack. "In the city of Philadelphia, we could really use that billion right now.

"It's outrageous," he said. "It's no way to run a criminal-justice system."