They were charged with murder in State Supreme Court in Brooklyn, where the clocks sometimes seem to serve a decorative function. [...] Lawyers have asked to seal the case; invoked the Federal and State Constitutions; alluded to Roe v. Wade, Brown v. Board of Education and Plessy v. Ferguson; asked for joint trials; asked for separate trials; asked for psychological tests; asked to withhold the results of those tests; and then asked for new psychologists. [...]
Justice, when it arrives, comes by famously slow means, and the Brooklyn courts offer no special chariot. And defense lawyers often stall as a tactic, knowing that witnesses can disappear or forget details, and that the passage of time, in general, is bad for prosecutors. But the case of People v. Nixzaliz Santiago, through a series of redundant arguments and colorful court filings, has elevated inaction to something approaching spectacle, on display every few weeks with no end in sight.
