By Chuck Hustmyre
March 20, 2007
NEW ORLEANS, La. (Crime Library) — Math skills are not required in the New Orleans District Attorney's Office.
Perhaps they should be.
Catch and release is a good idea for fish, not killers.
Last week, state District Judge Lynda Van Davis rapped her former boss, Orleans Parish District Attorney Eddie Jordan, for waiting too long to bring a murder suspect to trial.
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| District Attorney Eddie Jordan |
After listening to more than an hour of testimony from Jordan, given during a rare motion to quash hearing, Judge Van Davis, who once worked as an assistant U.S. attorney when Jordan was the top federal prosecutor in New Orleans, ordered the release of Rudy Francis, 53, who was charged with murdering his business partner in August 2000.
The judge ruled the district attorney had failed to comply with state law, which requires prosecutors to bring defendants to trial within two years in non-capital felony cases. For capital cases, the time limit is extended to three years.
Another time constraint—and a potential mathematical challenge for the DA—is that state law allows prosecutors one year to retry a defendant whose original trial ended in a mistrial.
Francis was tried for second-degree murder in June 2004, but the jury deadlocked and failed to reach a verdict, prompting the judge to declare a mistrial.
After the mistrial was declared, the District Attorney's Office caught a lucky break because Francis missed several court dates and disappeared for a while. When he returned to court March 8, 2005, prosecutors told the court they intended to try Francis again.
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| Judge Lynda Van Davis |
According to Judge Van Davis, that effectively started the clock ticking.
Time ran out on March 8, 2006.
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