BOSTON (AP) - A year-long study of drunken driving cases in Massachusetts
recommends that the court system find ways to reduce opportunities for
defendants to go "shopping" for a judge who may be more likely to
acquit them.
The study was conducted by an attorney appointed by the Supreme Judicial
Court after The Boston Globe last year published a series of stories that found
certain judges had high rates of acquittals for accused drunken drivers.
The study by attorney Jack Cinquegrana (chin-kwah-GRAH-nah) found that
judges in some courts, particularly in Worcester County, acquit nearly all
defendants who chose to have a judge, rather than a jury, decide their cases.
The report said nothing suggests judicial misconduct.
But it said the high acquittal rates in certain courts "creates an
appearance of leniency."
