Saved: 1; Lost: Everyone Else

The New York Times no doubt published the story of Denise Dallaire as heart-warming tale of justice gone right, the time when a few good judges prevailed against a bad system.

When Denise Dallaire was arrested at age 26 on charges of selling a few ounces of crack cocaine here a decade ago, she was sentenced to prison for more than 15 years. Last month, shackled inside the same court and facing the same judge, she received an apology and was set free.

That's a wonderful thing. At least for Denies Dallaire.  The Times calls the events that led to an apology and release "an exquisitely rare constellation" of events, and indeed, it was.

Ms. Dallaire was lucky enough to get herself noticed and for a technical flaw in her case to have surfaced. The result was a moment of courtroom drama and human redemption led by an 81-year-old judge eager to make amends for a decision he had long regretted.

“I felt bound by those mandatory guidelines and I hated them,” Judge Lagueux (pronounced la-GUEUR) said from the bench as Ms. Dallaire sobbed quietly and the room froze with amazement. “I’m sorry I sent you away for 15 years.

The next unlikely quirk was that Judge John Gleeson, the rarest of judicial birds who has put his career on the line to stand up for his belief that the astronomical sentences "advised" by the Guidelines, combined with the mandatory minimums imposed as a knee-jerk legislative reaction to the issue du jour, stumbled upon her during a visit to Danbury Correctional Facility.  Talk about kismet. He was there for an annual visit, so he never forgot where they warehouse the people he sentenced.

Judge Gleeson then called a friend, Jonathan D. Polkes, at Weil Gotshal to take on Ms. Dallaire's case pro bono.  When a judge asks you to do a case pro bono, you do it. Had Ms. Dallaire written the same lawyer with the same request, would anyone have even read her letter?  Polkes did the only thing available, request a presidential pardon, which had slightly less chance of working than someone winning the megalball jackpot weekly for the next four years. President Obama has been particularly stingy when it comes to pardons.

As part of the pardon process, Mr. Polkes sent the materials to Judge Lagueux to get his signoff. The judge was eager to help. He believed, however, as did the others, that a presidential pardon was unlikely. But he noted a procedural flaw in his original sentence. He told Mr. Polkes that if he could get the case back before him, he would free Ms. Dallaire on time served.

The article doesn't say what the "procedural flaw" was, but it would be fair to guess that only a judge truly inclined to resentence would point it out and embrace it.  Judges do not usually find such flaws sufficiently persuasive to tell a lawyer that he wants the case back before him.

Cutting to the chase, since there details are so lacking as to provide no insight as to the mechanics of getting Denise Dallaire back before Judge Lagueux, we arrive at the magical moment in the courtroom where the judge apologies for his original sentence and frees the now  not-so-young woman before him. 

Heart-warming? For some. For me, not so much. What this story reflects is one defendant saved from the belly of the beast, but it simultaneously reflects the fact the all the others, the tens of thousands for whom the "exquisitely rare constellation" of events didn't occur remain in federal prison, and will spend the vast majority of their lives, if not the balance, waiting for the day that a judge like John Gleeson stumbles upon them.

There aren't too many judges like John Gleeson.  There aren't too many judges like Ronald Lagueux.  There isn't nearly enough good luck to go around.  The legitimacy of a system cannot depend on fortuitous events, one at a time, righting the wrongs of a system out of control.

Not to lack empathy toward Ms. Dallaire, but to remember that she's just one of so many who have been sentenced to a future of pointless misery because it made for good politics at the time, and to highlight that there aren't enough judges like John Gleeson and Ronald Lagueux to go around, this story of one success is a tale of a failed system.  One win is good, but what of everyone else?

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Source: http://blog.simplejustice.us/2013/03/31/saved-1-lost-everyone-else.aspx?ref=rss

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