Chapter 22

• Jurisdiction: United States

Chapter 22 Recapitulation and Aspirations

Reflecting on a fifty-year history of one local criminal justice system housed at Third Avenue and James Street in Seattle, I know it has evolved into a far superior system than what it was when I began my career as a prosecutor. Here, I will summarize the main improvements that have been made—and identify the major defects that persist—in this local system and pretty much everywhere else in this nation. Also, I offer a wish list of aspirational goals for the new generation of crusaders and road maps to achieve them—reforming the criminal justice system.

Public Corruption

After decades of Seattle police officers being on the take, a small number of inexperienced prosecutors put an end to that payoff system. However, that doesn't mean that public corruption will not return if the community isn't vigilant. What Chris Bayley stated in his book Seattle Justice bears repeating: "the need for reform never ends."⁹⁰

Politically Nonpartisan Office

When I started in the King County Prosecutor's Office, it was political. Recall the time that I drove around putting up yard signs for Prosecutor Charles O. Carroll. Chris Bayley ran on a platform that he would eliminate politics and create a professional prosecutor's office. He did and that legacy continues to this day, as it should. Politics has no business in a prosecutor's office, and that includes local and state prosecutor's offices and the U.S. Department of Justice.

Guilty-But-Mentally-Ill Law

I've prosecuted defendants who were clearly mentally ill but legally sane when they committed their crimes—recall the Dearbone and Baker cases. Washington law continues to adhere to the M'Naghten Rule, and that law should be changed to allow the jury to consider a verdict of "guilty but mentally ill," which would impose a penalty that would fit the crime and provide treatment for the mentally ill offender.

Juvenile Justice

While I was the head of the Juvenile Section of the office in the 1970s, we completely obliterated the archaic 1913 law with the passage of the Juvenile Justice Act. The system went from a social-worker-run system to a justice system. One part of that law authorized the diversion of some offenders from the court system, and, as outlined in this book, the diversion approach has been innovatively expanded and hopefully this movement will continue.

Sexual Psychopaths

When James Ruzicka walked away from the sexual psychopath program at Western State Hospital and...