New Orleans Moves to Repair Its Legal System

After months of chaos in the criminal justice system here, Mayor C. Ray Nagin announced the first steps Monday to replace the city’s missing prosecutors, public defenders and police officers, along with its ruined courtrooms.

A neighboring parish is lending prosecutors to New Orleans to help its overburdened district attorney’s office deal with a significant backlog of cases, Mr. Nagin said. Pro bono assistance for poor defendants is on the way from the State Bar Association, which is also paying for a new system to coordinate and track cases. Courtrooms and jail cells are being rebuilt and brought into service.

And, Mr. Nagin said, the city has established a system for contacting and issuing subpoenas to New Orleans police officers who have been scattered across the country since Hurricane Katrina. The displaced officers have been desperately needed to testify in scores of criminal cases that have been unable to proceed for a lack of witnesses.

from the NY Times