Later yesterday, U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak, who is challenging Specter for the Senate nomination in the Democratic primary, held a competing community forum on the same issues.
Sestak read excerpts from The Inquirer series to the audience, and said the findings were disturbing and the problems systemic.
"No one is singularly at fault here. We all are," he said. "We have neglected our cities for far too long."
The Inquirer stories documented a criminal justice system in crisis, beset by the nation's lowest felony conviction rate, a massive number of fugitives, and an epidemic of witness intimidation.
At the two sessions, witnesses said problems in the city's criminal justice system were deep-rooted and severe - and would take the participation of many players to fix.
Robert Welsh, a defense lawyer and former federal prosecutor, said defense lawyers, prosecutors and judges would have to find common ground as they searched for solutions, perhaps by changing laws or rules of criminal procedure.
"I assure you, everybody has the same thing to say about this, and that's 'the system is broken,' " he said.
John Goldkamp, a criminologist and professor at Temple University, said the issues highlighted by The Inquirer were "symptoms of dysfunction."
The newspaper reported that criminal cases routinely collapse because witnesses have been frightened or harmed.
Prosecutors, judges and defense lawyers told the newspaper that witness recantations had become the norm in city courtrooms.
"If law enforcement breaks down because of some misguided notion of not being a snitch, something has to be done," Specter said.
