Miscellaneous

Amnesty Calamity or Purge Surge? Hamilton County Weighs Warrant Issue

By Anne Skove, Esq.

You say "potato," I say "potahto." You say "purge," I say "amnesty."

Well, that's not quite as catchy, but you get the idea.

The question is an old one: what to do with stale warrants?

Old traffic violations, bad checks (but only teensy-tiny ones), and the like are clogging Hamilton County's municipal courts. The people at the other end of these cases will, if caught, clog up the already-crowded jail.

Together, a municipal court judge and city council member have proposed erasing 50,000 - 100,000 such warrants. Doing so, they say, will save taxpayers $3.4 million over 10 years.

The clerk of courts calls it "amnesty" for trespassers, petty thieves, and low-level drug traffickers.

"But they do it in Cleveland" has never been a good excuse here in Cincinnati. Nevertheless, this is one pro-erasing argument.

Another point, made by Judge Nadine Allen, is that the courts dismiss at least 80% of these cases due to lack of evidence.

If the judges agree to the plan, the next question is who would carry it out. It could be done by local rule (Ohio loves local rules!).

Or, the prosecutor could implement the purge. Given the political climate here (or almost anywhere, really), it's hard to see how the prosecutor would agree to do this. Prosecutors are elected. They don't want to run on an amnesty record.

See Old Warrants Could Vanish, Jessica Brown, Cincinnati Enquirer (April 18, 2008).

Full post as published by court-o-rama.org on April 18, 2008 (boomark / email).