Requests for jury trials swamping city courts

Many defendants prefer day in Circuit Court for better deal

Paul O'Connor, who supervises prosecutors handling misdemeanor Circuit Court cases, said lowering penalties for possessing small quantities of marijuana to under 90 days in jail would reduce jury trial requests by 15 percent to 20 percent in Baltimore. But rural and suburban counties, which can manage their caseloads, have resisted legislative efforts to reduce marijuana possession penalties, he said.

In the 1980s, one district judge, Robert J. Gerstung, tried to bypass the legislature by promising not to send defendants to jail for more than 89 days on the condition that they wouldn't request a jury trial. In three opinions that decade, the Court of Appeals ruled the "Gerstung Rule" unconstitutional.

After legislative attempts to reverse the court failed, instant jury trials began.

But Mathews says that the solution is simple. Prosecutors know what their counterparts in District Court offered a defendant. Stick with that offer or increase it and the cases will stop coming, he said.

"When the case got to Circuit Court, if they didn't continue to give them better deals, this wouldn't happen," Mathews said. "I'm not saying, go up and punish you. But usually the deal offered in District Court is a good deal."