SECTION: Metro; Part B; Page 6; Letters Desk

LENGTH: 125 words

HEADLINE: JUDGE'S COMMENTS

BODY:
In his response to proposed legislative hearings on the need for criminal justice reforms that would help avoid the conviction of factually innocent defendants, James Bascue, assistant presiding judge of the Los Angeles Superior Court, is more concerned about the effect this may have on anti-crime legislation of the past 15 years (May 2).

This attitude, notwithstanding support for such hearings by the district attorney, Police Commission and public defender, underscores the unconscious (at best) complicity of the judiciary in the breakdown of the justice system now coming to light. Since when is it the purpose of anti-crime legislation to increase the likelihood of the innocent being framed and convicted?

JERRY WEIL

Seal Beach

LOAD-DATE: May 8, 2000