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58 Alb. L. Rev. 175 (1994-1995)
Model of Discretion: New York's Interests of Justice Dismissal Statute

handle is hein.journals/albany58 and id is 185 raw text is: LEGAL DEVELOPMENTS A MODEL OF DISCRETION: NEW YORK'S INTERESTS OF JUSTICE DISMISSAL STATUTE John F. Wirenius* INTRODUCTION Let justice be done though the heavens fall,' cried out William Watson in 1602, and the echoes of that cry can be heard to this day. The ancient cry for justice contains two separate thoughts: first that justice is worth achieving whatever the cost, and second, that the price may very well be high. The quest for justice has been a center of philosophical debate from Plato, who defined justice as the per- formance by each individual of that individual's proper function in society,2 to John Rawls, whose definition is considerably more com- plex.3 Authors as diverse as Robertson Davies and John Mortimer have described the passion for justice as heroic, prompting the latter to describe courage as something you can't do without, not if you concern yourself with justice.4 The purpose of the criminal justice system is, obviously, to do jus- tice in criminal cases. This truism underlies all of the statutory * Associate, Solovay & Edlin, P.C., New York, New York. B.A., Fordham University, 1987; J.D., Columbia University School of Law, 1990. The author would like to thank Denise Fonalledas, Harold Ferguson, Joel B. Atlas, and Michael Fois for their comments and helpful suggestions regarding this Article, and would also like to thank Karen M. Wirenius, to whom this Article is dedicated. 1 THE OXFORD DICTIONARY OF QUOrATIONS 722 (Angela Partington ed., 4th ed. 1992) (in point of fact, Watson wrote in Latin Fiat justitia et ruant coeli). The remarkably similar saying Fiat justitia et pereat mundus (let justice be done though the world perish) is attributed to Emperor Ferdinand I by Johannes Manilius. Id. at 281. In fact, the motto of the Legal Aid Society of New York City is fiat justitia.' 2 1 PLATO, THE REPUBLIC 367-77 (G.P. Goold ed.'& Paul Shorey trans., 1982). 3 JOHN RAwLS, A THEORY OF JUSTICE 11 (1971) ([Plrinciples ofjustice ... are the principles that free and rational persons concerned to further their own interests would accept in an initial position of equality as defining the fundamental terms of their association.). As the remainder of Rawls's long work sets out the meaning and ramifications of the quoted sentence, the complexity of Rawls's definition becomes evident. .4 JOHN MORTIMER, RumPoLE AND THE AGE OF MIRACLES 148 (1988); see also ROBERTSON DAVIES, THE MANTICORE 250-51 (1972) (describing the struggle to lend just representation to every accused person as heroic). Davies's fictional protagonist, an attorney, presents his own definition ofjustice: the constant and perpetual wish to render to everyone his due. Id. at 62. 175 -

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