People v. Potter

OPINION OF THE COURT

Harold Adler, J.

This case involves some of the most volatile issues facing the criminal justice system, including matters of race, the difficulty *410of some courts to sustain any meaningful trial capacity and the common practice of prosecutors reducing charges on the eve or day of trial. This latter practice, sometimes resulting in the forfeiture of a defendant’s right to a jury trial, is a convention often despised by the defense bar.

The defense makes an unusual and creative argument to extend Baison-like race issues to the prosecutor’s motion to reduce the charges down from…