"His conviction was set aside in an attack in which he admitted he left his victim dazed, weeping, and bleeding on a sidewalk in West Philadelphia.
" 'That's good,' said Carter, 60. 'I'm glad it's dropped.' "
Good for him. Bad for everyone else. Part of Carter's good fortune is owed to the fact that there are 55 members of the court's warrant squad, but each is responsible for tracking down about 850 of the city's 47,000 fugitives.
Only Newark, N.J., has so high a rate of bail jumpers.
At the direction of the state Supreme Court, the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office identified about 19,400 long-gone defendants over the last several months, and quietly made them unwanted.
Victims of these crimes learned of the judicial undoing from the newspaper. Ron Castille, Pennsylvania's chief justice, explained that wiping out the old warrants would let the system concentrate on more serious cases.
"You're never going to find these people," he said. "And if you do, are you going to prosecute them? The answer is no."
District Attorney Seth Williams told the reporters that none of the cases involved serious physical harm to the victims.
Both statements are debatable.
Among the ex-fugitives are three people accused of robbery, 55 accused of aggravated assault, 120 accused of sex offenses, 403 accused of carrying illegal guns, and 3,964 accused of dealing drugs.
One beneficiary of the judicial dispensation is Francisco Sanchez. The reporters interviewed a woman who accused him of forcing his way into her Kensington home 23 years ago, slapping her, then forcing her to perform oral sex.
"I wished all my life that they would catch him," she said.
How do these fugitives deserve a break? Wouldn't information about their flight be useful to police officers who happen upon them while on the beat?
