Perhaps topped only by the prospect of successfully incarcerating an innocent person, we imagine making an error that lets a murderer go free is the type of worry that keeps prosecutors up at night.
Did the latter circumstance happen in Washington County?
What’s the point?
A foul-up in the Washington County prosecutor’s office has denied justice in a murder case.
The truth is, we don't know. Nobody has been convicted in the Aug. 31, 2015, murder of Anthony Dell Jackson, 58, in Fayetteville. Police found Jackson's body under a pavilion in Walker Park. He had been stabbed in the neck and head.
What we do know is police arrested Jimmy Lee Hancock, 50, shortly after Jackson's body was found. They found him near Jackson's body and near a knife, according to a police report. The police also said Hancock appeared to have blood on him. Within hours, he was booked into the county jail. About a month later, he pleaded not guilty to charges of first-degree murder, aggravated assault and terroristic threatening.
Correction
The original version of this editorial used an incorrect pronoun for Jimmy Lee Hancock's attorney. Autumn Tolbert, a lawyer in Fayetteville, was the attorney who filed the motion that Hancock's right to a speedy trial had been violated. A correction has been made in this version.
Hancock was supposed to go on trial this week in Washington County Circuit Court. Last Friday, however, his attorney asked Judge Joanna Taylor to throw out the case against Hancock. The attorney reasoned that the prosecution had taken so long to bring the case to trial, it violated Hancock's constitutional right to a speedy trail.
When someone is charged with a crime, the process triggers a clock of sorts. Our Constitution guarantees a speedy trial based upon concerns that without such limitations, the government would (and has) allowed criminal defendants to languish in jail for long periods. Remember, defendants are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. This important provision protects defendants from lengthy incarceration based solely on suspicion and allegations rather than conviction by a judge and/or jury.
It's rare that a case ends with a judge ruling the prosecution didn't meet the speedy trail standard. But that's what the judge in Hancock's trial did, and apparently had to do.
"It was our fault," Washington County Prosecutor Matt Durrett said. "We have to take responsibility for what happened. It slipped through."
We appreciate that Durrett acknowledged his office could not make an excuse or blame anyone else for the prosecutorial flub. We appreciate his pledge that it won't happen again.
We also appreciation what a terrible oversight his office has committed. The people of Washington County have every right to demand better.
It was, undoubtedly, a tough case. The victim and the man accused were among the homeless population of Fayetteville, which lends understanding to why the violence took place in Walker Park. Witnesses were homeless, too. Deputy Prosecutor Chreea Booher, who was directly handling the case, also said the state's key witness died while the case was pending (which, in an odd way, is one more indicator of why speedy trials are not just important for the defendant, but also the prosecution).
So now, Hancock has every reason to appreciate freedom, but he also hasn't had the opportunity to defend himself against murder charges. And the people of Washington County are left to wonder.
Wonder about what?
This is a murder case, the most serious of criminal violations. If the prosecutors miss a detail like speedy trial in a murder case, what's happening in the lesser criminal cases?
And maybe the people are right to wonder if there's a different kind of justice for the homeless than for others. If the victim lived at home with a spouse and kids, would the prosecutor's office have lost track of time? Is this a case in which a homeless victim is easy to forget because nobody is advocating for him? Is it not the prosecutor's job to be an advocate for those who cannot speak for themselves?
Anthony Dell Jackson was easy to ignore when he was homeless. Did it happen again after he was murdered?
Those are harsh burdens to place on prosecutors who, we suspect, are even harder on themselves for the outcome of this botched case. But Jackson is dead. Who killed him? It's impossible now to know whether Hancock committed this crime, but the police and the prosecutors felt they had enough evidence to present to a jury.
Justice in this case wasn't just delayed. It's been denied for everyone involved -- the accused, the victim and the people of Washington County.
Commentary on 08/18/2017