News that Superior Court Judge William Holden faces discipline by the Judicial Review Council caught me by surprise. What had the man done to warrant a public takedown? It turns out he’s guilty, if that’s the right word, of the collective sin of the judiciary delay. Query? Rather than singling out Judge Holden for scorn, why not sigh a giant mea culpa from the entire Judicial Branch?
Judge Holden did not write articulations of certain rulings promptly, thus delaying the appeals of a couple of defendants convicted of crimes. I am not going to defend the notion that delay is acceptable. But if there is a lawyer in the state who can say that rulings in her cases are always timely, I’ve not met her. Connecticut suffers from docket creep. The causes of this slow-motion form of justice are many.
