When Paul Howard campaigned for the job of Fulton County district attorney, he promised to bring a fresh and vigorous approach to a prosecutor's office that was hamstrung by old-fashioned views (such as minimizing rape cases) and antiquated techniques (including a lack of specialization in areas such as sex crimes). Howard, who had worked for years under longtime District Attorney Lewis Slaton, seemed the right man for the job.

But four years into Howard's tenure, the district attorney's office is still no smoothly efficient engine of justice. Instead, it is swamped by backbreaking caseloads and struggling with poor morale among its overworked prosecutors. Indigent defendants languish in the Fulton County Jail for months before going to trial, adding to a crowding problem rooted in a growing regional population. (The more citizens, the more criminals.)

Worse yet, Howard is engaged in a bitter controversy with Fulton's Superior Court judges over responsibility for the huge backlog of criminal cases and the subsequent jail crowding. That feud heated up several degrees last week, when Howard's office suggested that a Fulton County judge was to blame when two murder defendants jumped bail rather than appear in court for trial.

This is no mere political sideshow lacking consequences beyond theatrical value. Fulton taxpayers could be forced to pay for a costly expansion of the jail if severe crowding continues. And, more important, innocent men and women may be spending months behind bars simply because the criminal justice system is too backed up to get around to their cases in a timely fashion.

Unfortunately, the relationship between Howard's office and Fulton's judges seems set to worsen after last week's turn of events. This ugly chapter in the saga started last month, when two murder defendants --- Raimundo Salazar and Homero Soto, charged in three 1998 murders that may have been part of a war between drug gangs --- failed to show up for their scheduled trials. In December, Salazar and Soto had each been granted bail of $35,000 by Fulton Superior Court Judge Doris Downs.

After Soto and Salazar failed to appear, Howard suggested to an Atlanta Constitution reporter that his office had vigorously opposed bail. Instead, the court record clearly shows that an assistant district attorney, Joey Burby, agreed to the relatively low bail. Howard's mischaracterization infuriated Judge Downs, as well as a few other judges.

Howard defends his record in the case, noting that he was chafed by an earlier ruling that led to the November 1999 bail: Downs agreed with a defense attorney that Salazar and Soto, arrested in March 1998, had been in jail long enough. If the district attorney's office was not ready to go to trial (and defendants do have a constitutional right to a speedy trial), she would grant bail. Faced with those choices, the district attorney's office agreed to bail, still intending to try the two men. But Salazar and Soto were Mexican nationals, who have probably long since left the country.

This may not be perfect justice, but the disappearance of two criminal suspects does not bring the wheels of the system to a grinding halt. However, the feud between the chief prosecutor and the judges might.

Cynthia Tucker's column appears Wednesdays and Sundays.
(Editor of the Constitution editorial pages)