WTC Judge Quits Bench

By Greg Gittrich
New York Daily News
June 25, 2003

The federal judge presiding over developer Larry Silverstein's fight to double his insurance payout from the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks is resigning.

Manhattan Federal Court Judge John Martin said yesterday he is fed up with a criminal justice system he called unjust - and conceded he wants to earn more money after 13 years on the bench.

"Congress is mandating things simply because they want to show how tough they are on crime with no sense of whether this makes sense or is meaningful," Martin told The Associated Press.

The result, he said, is lengthy prison sentences for low-level drug dealers "who society failed at every step."

Martin, a former Manhattan federal attorney, intends to reenter private practice by the end of the summer.

Federal judges earn $157,700 a year, less than what second-year associates make at many law firms.

Silverstein, who signed a 99-year lease for the towers weeks before the attack, could get up to $6.8 billion in insurance proceeds.

A Silverstein spokesman and a lawyer for Swiss Re, the largest insurer involved, said they do not expect Martin's departure to delay the case.