Kentucky

The following editorial by the Courier Journal takes the easy way out and blast the judge for his attempt to move the cases through the system in the face of increasing case loads.  Judge Sean Delahanty apparently had a standing rule of standing objections that the prosecutors knew about from the beginning. 

Assuming this is true then the real issues are:

One, are the dockets that busy to necessitate that standing rule?

Two, are standing objections legally valid to preserve the issues for the prosecution? and

Three, why aren't they in writing?

Whether or not the dockets are heavy or a need exists to quit wasting time on the routine is probably a "judge"ment call that I would give to the judge rather than an unsubstantiated attack by an outsider.

As for the written "standing objections", well that has been taken off the table as Judge Delahanty has stated he will reduce them to writing.

Thus, the question remains for others within the legal system (rather than pundits such as the Courier Journal and myself) to review and decide whether or not the standing objection is legally permissible.  I have not researched it; nor will I.  I will let the system work itself out through the case-by-case and appellate process with the Circuit Court appeal and beyond resolving this WITHIN the legal system and not the editorial pages. 

Further study may reveal that the number of judges in our district courts cannot meet the dockets and case loads without creative use of existing rules.  If the use of "boilerplate" and "standing objections" are not valid, then can rules be implemented to make them valid and/or if it appearsto those in the know that each and every objection should be entered in response to the question to comply with the constitution (state and US) or to give meaning to a fair trial, then should the numbers of the judges be increased?

The Courier-Journal's proposal of ex parte discussions between the judge and the chief county attorney does not smell good either and raises another set of concerns and issues about the appearance of justice.

Here is the link to the Courier Journal editorial:

Judicial temper

District Court Judge Sean Delahanty should have behaved like -- well, like a judge, if he had a problem with what he considered "obnoxious, ridiculous, abundant and useless objections" made by prosecutors during probable-cause hearings.