At a recent CLE addressing “Truth & Adversaries,”1 an attendee who practices criminal law bemoaned the fact that New York State prosecutors commonly—in fact, pretty much always—tell the judge at every arraignment and court appearance thereafter that they are “ready,” however untruthful such a bold pronouncement might seem. When asked by one of the panelists whether she was in a position to challenge the prosecutor’s knee-jerk call to battle, she maintained, employing an in your face bravura, that she, herself, was “always ready.” A charmingly glib response but one that is, arguably, as insincere as a prosecutor’s rote—”ready.”
It’s a dirty little secret—well, maybe not a secret at all. When, at arraignment, a prosecutor reflexively says that he is “ready for trial,” he is not the least bit ready. Case in point (and egregiously, at that): February’s decision in People v. Guirola2 where the court dismissed the accusatory instrument on speedy trial grounds when the state was actually ready for trial 13 months after it first answered “ready.” Yes, in most instances, if push came to shove and defense counsel called the prosecutor’s “the-People-are-ready” bluff, demanding an immediate trial from a judge with a clear calendar, thus able to try the case “two weeks from today” with limited discovery and no motion practice, the prosecutor would find the office’s flask of midnight oil and—bleary-eyed, if necessary, he’d walk into court virtually ready on the date set for trial.
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