Roundtree v. Brown is a landmark case and created New York’s 24-hour arrest-to-arraignment clock, setting the requirement that state courts arraign individuals within 24-hours of their arrest absent acceptable explanation for delay. Arraignment is the first stage of a criminal proceeding and is the point at which an individual is formally charged with a crime. Prior to Roundtree, individuals were held for days after their arrests, including for minor charges. Beginning in January 1990, Legal Aid established a practice of filing habeas writs on behalf of every client held in excess of 24 hours. As of April 20, 1990, we had filed over 9,000 petitions. One client had been held for 95 hours pre-arraignment – nearly four days – on the charge that he had sold umbrellas without a license. Another was kept in custody for 69 hours before being charged with the violation of driving with a suspended license.  

Roundtree was a consolidation of these petitions. The case eventually made its way to the New York Court of Appeals, where in 1991, the state’s highest court affirmed that the delay of one’s arraignment past 24 hours is presumptively unnecessary and in violation of state law. Prior to filing Roundtree, Legal Aid had tried but failed to secure a ruling in federal court holding that any time period longer than 24 hours represented “cruel and unusual punishment” under the United States Constitution through Williams v. Ward, 845 F.2d 372 (2d Cir. 1988), cert. denied, 488 U.S. 1020 (1989) in 1986.