Staff Blog
Which side benefits from a 33-day delay? And what if they need a new judge?
Now that we know that the Fumo trial will be suspended for at least 33 more days, I called former U.S. Attorney Peter Vaira — who charged and unsuccessfully prosecuted Fumo in the 1980’s and gave us his thoughts on this trial in a recent CP article — to get his take on what effect the delay could have on the case.
Basically, Vaira says, both sides are pretty much in a holding pattern. The prosecutors will likely have to do more in the way of rescheduling a horde of witnesses, which could be tedious. Most of the same goes for the defense.
(Personally, I thought a delay could be helpful for Fumo’s team. The prosecutors already have thier case laid out, the defense can spend the extra time preparing for the sure-to-be- document onslaught. But hey, maybe they don’t need it.)
Things could also get complicated with the jury pool, which still hasn’t been cut down to the 16 people who will be empaneled. Some of them could claim that they have a new hardship because of the new scheduling. This next part is me talking, but I’m assuming there are some jurors each side just wanted to have based on look, demographic, and their responses to the personal interviews — maybe that person will be gone?
Finally, let’s say that, for whatever reason, Judge Yohn isn’t able to hear the case and it has to be reassigned. Ut-oh.
The new Judge will have to catch up on the case’s complex history, and get a general understanding for Yohn’s decisions. “You don’t have to reenact the whole thing,” Vaira says. “But the new judge would have to read the all motions and see what was at stake, and how prior ruled, so he’s familiar with it all.”
And how long can that take? Vaira’s unsure: “It’s up to that individual judge to determine when he or she is ready.”
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Also, while all this is going on, Fumo made a surprising return to Harrisburg yesterday for a legislative session.
