In like manner, in criminal cases the real cause of delay in nearly every case is the failure or inability of prosecuting officers to press their cases diligently; and the frequent change in the personnel of our officeholders is likewise a cause of much delay. Whenever one official succeeds another, the period during which the new incumbent is learning what occurred before he came into office and familiarizing himself with the pending cases is so much time lost. Greater permanency in the tenure of office of prosecuting officers would probably conduce to greater speed and greater efficiency in the enforcement of the law. Nor can it be doubted that many public officials and their assistants do not feel the same degree of responsibility for the prompt dispatch of public business that they would feel if representing private clients. The remarks of Mr. Justice Scott in the recent case of People _vs._ Turley are indeed timely, and should be commended to the attention of all prosecuting officers throughout the state. He used the following language: "There is much well-justified complaint at the present time of the slowness with which the criminal law is enforced, and especially of the great length of time which is frequently permitted to elapse between a conviction and the review of the conviction by the appellate courts. Among persons not conversant with the rules of criminal procedure, the courts are not unnaturally, but most unjustly, charged with a large share of responsibility for this condition. The blame rests elsewhere. The appellate courts are powerless to act until the appeal is brought before them by those charged with that duty. When the matter is brought up for a hearing, the delay is ended, and the appeal is invariably promptly decided. The present is a particularly flagrant case. The defendant was convicted in March, 1909, and was almost immediately released on bail pending an appeal, under a certificate of reasonable doubt. The record is not voluminous, and the questions of law involved are neither difficult nor intricate, and yet the defendant has been at large for three years and a half before the appeal is brought on for argument. Of course under such circumstances the defendant was quite satisfied and was in no haste to have his appeal argued. The duty to bring it on promptly rested, as it rests in every case, upon the district attorney, who had it in his power at any time to force a hearing of the appeal by moving to dismiss it. This court has never shown itself to be unwilling to support and cooperate with the district attorney in compelling appeals in criminal cases to be argued with all reasonable promptness. The remedy for unreasonable delays in the final disposition of criminal appeals lies in his hands."[53]