Peter Schaffer: The Criminal Justice System in New York | Big Think

Peter Schaffer: The Criminal Justice System in New York

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Attorney Schaffer talks about the strengths and weaknesses of the system as well as D.A. Robert Morgenthau.

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Peter J. Schaffer, Attorney at Law devotes his practice to New York State criminal defense and the defense of all federal criminal matters throughout the United States. From his office in Bronx, New York, Mr. Schaffer is readily accessible to all New York City, Nassau and Westchester County Criminal and State Supreme Courts, as well as the U.S. District Courts for the District of Connecticut and the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York.

With a wealth of experience handling cases ranging from simple traffic violations to complex federal death penalty eligible felonies, Mr. Schaffer uses the knowledge and skills he has developed over the past twenty-one years of trial work to help his clients achieve the best result in every case he defends.

Mr. Schaffer appears regularly on The Nancy Grace Show on CNN HeadlineNews, and on IN SESSION on truTV (formerly, courtTV), and has been heard on Sirius Satellite Radio and Bloomberg Radio as a guest commentator on nationally prominent criminal trials.

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TRANSCRIPT:

Peter Schaffer: Well, New York City is one of the larger jurisdictions probably in the world as far as criminal justice. I practice primarily in the Bronx, but even in the Bronx we have somewhere in the nature of 20 thousand to 30 thousand arrests and new cases every year. So if you multiply that over New York, it’s just massive in its scale.

QUestion: What are the strengths?

Peter Schaffer: Well, I think you have to separate the State of New York and the city. If you look at other- I’m not familiar with upstate, I think it’s very different. I think in New York City you have a tremendous amount of smart, motivated people on both sides, judges, attorneys, and I guess you also have the other end of the specter, people that are less capable, but at least you have a wealth of people that know what they’re doing to try to make up for those that don’t.

What are the weaknesses?

Peter Schaffer: I think that the weaknesses are it’s very underfunded; the judges haven’t received raises. Most of the people in New York City that are arrested and prosecuted are poor and they get appointed counsel and legal aid lawyers. And while they get decent representation, I just don’t think that there is enough money spent on preventing people from getting in a situation where they’re gonna be arrested

Has D.A. Robert Morgenthau been able to keep pace with the changes in society?

Peter Schaffer: Well, I mean I think the criminal justice system is probably 10 or 20 years behind all of the changes in society. I don’t know if it has much to do with him or just the way that the criminal justice system is treated. It doesn’t generate money for anyone. So when times come to allocate funds towards programs and things, people are loathe to commit money to the criminal justice system. So I don’t know what his particular position has been or how it’s changed. I don’t know if somebody younger coming in would do a better job; they would just be different.

How would you define D.A. Morgenthau’s tenure?

Peter Schaffer: You know, he’s been around for so long that I really am not familiar with what was there before. New York City is- you know, I think it’s a better place to practice criminal law than other parts of the country, at least in Manhattan and the Bronx. When there was a death penalty in New York, the prosecutors there didn’t seek the death penalty, so I think even though individual defendants and groups of defendants might feel they’re not treated fairly, I think that they can’t compare that with other parts of the country where the criminal justice system is so skewed in favor of the prosecution that the individual rights of the people that come before it are really- they are sort of given a back seat.

Victoria Brown: So what do you think needs to chan

QUestion: What needs to change?

Read the full transcript at