"My goal is to have lawyers think twice - especially if they're operating on our dime - before they ask for a continuance that isn't really justified," Dembe said in an interview last week.
Lawyers who handle court appointments bristled at her decision to take aim at them.
Samuel C. Stretton, a veteran defense lawyer whose practice includes a significant amount of court-appointed work, said Dembe's effort was "misguided" and would do nothing but deprive defendants of quality counsel.
Dembe's call for greater accountability followed a comprehensive analysis in which The Inquirer traced the outcomes of 31,000 criminal court cases filed in 2006, 2007, and 2008. It showed that defendants walk free on all charges in nearly two-thirds of violent-crime cases, giving Philadelphia the nation's lowest felony-conviction rate among large urban counties.
The Inquirer also reported that Philadelphia ranks second-to-last among large urban counties in its ability to quickly dispose of cases. According to federal comparative studies, only 70 percent of Philadelphia's felony cases were resolved within a year. By contrast, 97 percent of cases in the Detroit court system were resolved within a year.
Dembe, in her letter to the lawyers, pointed out that the American Bar Association standard for disposition of criminal cases was four months for misdemeanors and six months for felonies. She said the court would measure each lawyer's performance against those standards in weighing whether to appoint them in future cases.
As part of its investigation, The Inquirer reported that defense lawyers in Philadelphia sometimes seek spurious delays to wear down witnesses and gamble that the case will later fall apart as a result.
