What about the right to a speedy trial?

The escape of Nasir Grant, 24, and Ameen Hurst, 18, from Philadelphia’s Industrial Correctional Center last Sunday has caused both concern and amusement in the City of Brotherly Love, concern that two dangerous men, especially Mr Hurst, charged with four homicides, were on the loose, and amusement that the seriously understaffed jail didn’t even know that the two men had bolted for three shifts.

Xianni Stallings booking photo, via Steve Keeley on Twitter. Click to enlarge.

Just a few days later, 21-year-old Xianni Stallings, who had been “released from jail earlier this year after charges connected to a stabbing she was accused of participating in fell apart due to a lack of evidence,” decided that she wanted to go back behind bars for allegedly helping Mr Hurst escape, and the expression on her face in her latest booking photo clearly shows an, “Oh, what the f(ornicate) have I done?” look.

Mr Grant, who was not facing charges that would have kept him locked up for the rest of his miserable life, was recaptured by federal marshals after just four days on the lam. He didn’t even ‘lam’ very far, as he was picked up in North Philly.

And now a second person has been charged with helping Messrs Grant and Hurst escape:

Suspect in fatal beating at Pat’s Steaks allegedly helped inmates escape prison

Jose Alberto Flores-Huerta is expected to be charged with crimes including conspiracy and escape, police said.

by Chris Palmer | Friday, May 12, 2023 | 5:38 PM EDT

José Alberto Flores-Huerta, via Metro Philadelphia. Click to enlarge.

A 35-year-old man jailed on murder charges is expected to face new charges for serving as a lookout for the two men who escaped from a Philadelphia jail this week, authorities said Friday.Jose Alberto Flores-Huerta — incarcerated for allegedly participating in a fatal beating outside Pat’s King of Steaks in 2021 — is expected to be charged with crimes including conspiracy and escape, the Police Department said in a statement.

Police declined to provide additional details about Flores-Huerta’s alleged role in the breakout. He is the second person in two days to be accused of helping Nasir Grant, 24, and Ameen Hurst, 18, break out of the Philadelphia Industrial Correctional Center on Sunday. The pair sneaked out through a hole in a chain-link fence, police said.

The announcement of the impending charges came just hours after Grant was captured in North Philadelphia on Thursday night by U.S. Marshals while disguised in women’s clothing. Grant was arraigned on a new count of escape Friday morning, and bail was set at $10 million.

There’s more at the original, and at least from the story, and the charges he faces, it would seem that Mr Flores-Huerta isn’t necessarily a great guy. But a few paragraphs further down, I found this:

Flores-Huerta, of South Philadelphia, has been jailed since 2021, when he was charged with taking part in the fatal beating of Isidro Cortes outside Pat’s Steaks in South Philadelphia. Authorities said Flores-Huerta and several other men also assaulted Cortes’ father and another man during the brawl, which followed a CONCACAF Champions League soccer game in Chester between the Philadelphia Union and Club América, a team from Mexico City.

At a preliminary hearing last year, Flores-Huerta’s lawyer contended that two other men — who have not been caught — were primarily responsible for striking Isidro Cortes. But a judge was not persuaded, and she ordered Flores-Huerta held for trial on counts including murder, conspiracy, and aggravated assault. He was denied bail, and a trial is scheduled for the fall.

Why, exactly, is Mr Flores-Huerta scheduled for trial two years after he was arrested? What about his right to a reasonably speedy trial? Did the prosecution, which apparently presented enough evidence that the judge ordered the suspect held without bail, delay proceedings, of was it the defense? What if, after he is finally tried, Mr Flores-Huerta is acquitted? If that is the case, he will have spent two years behind bars for a crime he didn’t commit!

This is one of the travesties which has occurred in this country as a result of the COVID-19 panicdemic: the judicial system pretty much ground to a halt, and prisoners all across the United States were held in legal limbo, and some of them in jail, because trials were so greatly delayed, and it seems as though nobody cared.

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4 thoughts on “What about the right to a speedy trial?

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  2. It is another expense. While defense lawyers mY contribute to delays, a speedy trial means more expensive courts which distracts resources from the City “worthies”:, who would otherwise profit. Better some nobody spend years in jail.

    The demand for a “speedy trial” is mostly an excuse not to prosecute the guilty. It is part of the system.

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