The post-Katrina flood in New Orleans has all but wiped out the contents in the main evidence rooms in New Orleans.  Some judges are subsequently handing out get-out-of-jail-free cards, witnesses are gone, the perps are gone, the evidence is gone, and there isn’t enough manpower (lawyers) available to make a dent in the backlogs. 

May I suggest that the DNC re-deploy their 2006th Election Polls Lawyer Battalion to New Orleans to do something good for the people whose pain they feel.  If that’s not happening then it seems the ABA ought to do something to help them out.  Maybe the ACLU will help out the prosecutors and public defenders?  Right!  Letting perps walk is just one problem.  Making suspected perps they are holding wait way too long to get their cases heard is another.  The problem is bad for the public, the guilty, and the innocent.

NYT link: In New Orleans, Rust in the Wheels of Justice