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Show IC attorney says charges unfair, untrue Iron County Attorney James L. Shumate has responded to criticism directed at him in last week's Iron County Record. Shumate defended his record and his handling of cases involving plea bargaining, after the Record editorial of Mar. 12 which said that too much plea bargaining was being done. He noted that 48 felonies had been filed in 1980 in Fifth District Court in Iron County. He said that very few of the defendants pleaded guilty and that, if he hadn't plea bargained some of them, he would have had to take about 45 of them to trial. He estimated further that each trial would have taken about 2V2 days, a total of nearly 120 f ' However, Fifth District Court Judge J. Harlan Burns has on his yearly calendar only 170 days total for trials, and these must include trials in Washington, Beaver and Millard counties, as well as all civil trials in the district. Such an increased load on the system could very well result in the necessity of hiring another judge for the district. He also said that the cost for jurors for that many trials would come to $29,325, and the cost of witnesses would be $12,240. That totals $41,565, or $16,685 more than the total 1981 budget of $24,880 for the district court. In other words said Shumate the taxpayers would have to pay much more if they wanted all cases prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. He also said that it was not always necessary to prosecute fully to guarantee that justice be done. Many times, he said, there simply is not enough evidence to warrant full prosecution. "There is no use wasting the taxpayer's money pressing a case, if the jury is simply not going to find the defendant guilty ,"i he said. Also,, he noted, many times other states have a stronger case against a defendant. Then, the accused is extradited to the other state and prosecuted there, where he should be. Overall, Shumate said that he has done a good service to the people of the county over the past two years. He said he has saved money and time and has guaranteed that justice is done. "Who else are you going to find to do this good of a job?" he concluded. |