Dear Editor:

I recently read the article about our new District Attorney, Kathleen Rice, stating that unless she decides and approves the punishment, her office will walk away from plea bargains and take every case to trial. The logic seems backwards, and is very laughable. All she needs is for every defendant to refuse to make a deal and insist on trial. Her office would be swamped, unable to be ready for trial, and every defendant will have his or her charges dismissed due to the lack of a speedy trial, that is, assuming the court acts as an impartial arbiter and does not condone the delay and court backlog caused by the D.A.’s office.

The law is clear that it is a judge who decides punishment, not lawyers. A District Attorney or Assistant District Attorney, is but a lawyer playing prosecutor instead of defense. Judges should now turn around and state that they will refuse to approve any plea bargain with such conditions attached, and direct the D.A.’s office to be ready for trial or be sanctioned. Didn’t Ms. Rice take the same oath as all other attorneys upon admission to practice law to uphold the state and federal constitution, laws and rules? Sounds like she is on the verge of breaching that oath!

Most importantly, we need to understand the concept of plea-bargaining. It is to gain the cooperation of guilty defendants to move the system more efficiently, and obtain their help in catching and convicting other guilty individuals. But it is also for the innocent middle class citizen who cannot afford to fight in the system. (The rich can afford top lawyers and expensive expert witnesses, the poor are given legal aid and expert witnesses are provided to them. The middle class cannot afford this.) Many of the guilty pleas in plea-bargaining are from innocent middle class defendants. We cannot do away with plea-bargaining, because the system lacks the resources to then administer justice and law, and the courts would come to a screeching halt. Thus, it cannot be one sided, because any other side can undermine the entire criminal justice system.

Mace H. Greenfield, Esq. The writer is a family law attorney with an office in Jericho, and the former talk radio personality “Mace in your Face.”