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Long, but worth the read.

Carlos Vega’s story is written across his face. Two teardrop tattoos run down his cheek, one for each family member he watched die as a child. A jagged scar cuts across his jaw — the lasting mark of an attack by another inmate.

Mr. Vega was arrested in the Bronx on Sept. 30, 2007, accused of killing a man in a bodega. Now 33, he has been in jail for nearly nine years. Three trials have failed to yield a verdict. The first trial, more than four years after the murder, ended in a mistrial after the wife of a key witness became ill. The second ended in a hung jury, and the third also ended in a mistrial after a confrontation with a guard left Mr. Vega hospitalized.

In all, Mr. Vega’s case has come before the court 126 times as it has been shuffled among three defense lawyers, five prosecutors and 12 judges. Another hearing is scheduled for Monday.

The constant delays and inconclusive trials have earned Mr. Vega a dubious distinction: He has been incarcerated with an unresolved case longer than anyone else in New York City.

The city’s criminal justice system is notorious for its tortoiselike pace, but Mr. Vega’s case is an extreme example of how much worse the problem is in the Bronx. More than three years after a series of articles in The New York Times uncovered a culture of delays in the Bronx courts, prompting vows to address the issue, the underlying problems remain essentially unchanged. Trials start hours later than scheduled, lunches extend into midafternoon, courtrooms close early and vacations routinely lead to continuations.

Of the 789 unresolved felony cases in New York City that are at least two years old, more than half are in the Bronx, according to data from the city. About one-third of the inmates who have been awaiting trial for more than two years are from the Bronx.

Around midnight, Robert Gaston, 34, was shopping for juice at the New Way bodega on Morris Park Avenue in the East Bronx when a gunman entered. According to an off-duty police officer who was shopping there, the man fired several shots at Mr. Gaston, left and returned to shoot him again.

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About 30 minutes after the shooting, an officer “spotted a male Hispanic fitting the description of the perp,” according to a detective’s report.

The police stopped Mr. Vega on the corner of Taylor and Morris Park Avenues. A police sergeant approached Mr. Vega, the report said.

“Here’s my ID, officer,” Mr. Vega said.

Noticing a bulge in his pocket, officers tackled him, Mr. Vega said. They found a cellphone but no gun.

Later, a police car drove past the spot where Mr. Vega was being detained. Inside was a teenage witness, who said she had watched from her upstairs apartment as the shooter fled. The witness, the detective’s report said, made “a positive identification.”

About a month later, a grand jury indicted Mr. Vega on charges of second-degree murder, first-degree manslaughter and criminal possession of a weapon.

In a letter to The Times after the articles on the Bronx criminal justice system, Mr. Vega, who acknowledges having a criminal record, said he had not killed Mr. Gaston.

“I’m not perfect,” he wrote. “I’ve made bad choices in the past, but a murderer I am not.”

In May, the Bronx Defenders, which provides legal services to poor people, filed a federal lawsuit arguing that delays in the Bronx courts had “fatally undermined the right to trial” for tens of thousands of people charged with misdemeanors. “The system more closely resembles punishment than due process,” the suit said.

In an attempt to break the cycle of endless delays, the office of Mayor Bill de Blasio, a Democrat, started a citywide initiative last year to clear cases in which defendants have been in jail for more than a year. The program is a joint effort among the judiciary, district attorneys and the defense bar. Since the partnership began, more than 80 percent of felony cases that were at least two years old have been cleared. But with so many new cases entering the system, the difference it has made in the Bronx is negligible.