Just another speed bump slows justice

Whoever said the wheels of justice grind exceedingly slow, but exceedingly fine never went to court in Carson City, where they usually just grind slow.

After four years of legal haggling, we were all prepared for the trial for those accused in the Sammy Resendiz killings.

We shouldn't have been.

The moment Allison Joffee, Rocky Boice Jr.'s attorney, said her client wanted to fire her, the entire process derailed for at least a month.

Despite all of Judge Michael Griffin's warnings, despite all of new defense attorney Day Williams' assurances, the smart money was that the trial would not go off as scheduled.

Griffin's job is to make sure the trial is a fair one, trying to eliminate cause for appeal should there be a conviction.

Williams' job is to defend his client to the best of his ability.

So the filling between those two pieces of bread -- the actual trial date -- was going to be mighty thin.

There have been some claims from the Boice camp that the media have convicted him in the murder already.

We can't speak for the media, we are just one newspaper. But, our policy is to do our best to leave the convicting to juries.

Our readers who have been arrested may not agree, but the point to printing their names is so someone knows where they've gone.

In this country, we do not arrest people in secret, nor do we try them under the cloak of secrecy.

While having an arrest published in the newspaper may be embarrassing for the individual, it is part of the process protecting the person's civil rights.

Because when the state tries someone for murder, due process is done before that person's freedom and individual rights are taken away.

Our society requires trials be public so that innocence or guilt is not determined in a vacuum.

We print arrests, trials and acquittals -- because they are great stories and because people need to know there are consequences to criminal activity.