SC courts delay justice for accused, crime victims thanks to case backlogs
What’s your definition of speedy?
Think about how impatient you get waiting for a food delivery or your latest Amazon purchase.
Now, imagine waiting to learn your fate.
The Sixth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution guarantees, in part, that “In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed.”
According to the South Carolina Judicial Branch website, that guarantee has been defined in court cases as a protection only against “unnecessary or unreasonable delay” and “for the defendant to establish the fact that he has been denied a speedy trial, he must demonstrate the delay was attributable to the neglect and willfulness of the State.”
Neglect and willfulness depend on your point of view, of course, particularly when you’re sitting in a jail cell unable to post bail or when you’ve been the victim of a crime unable to find some peace because the accused has yet to be tried.
Courts consider the length of the delay, the government’s reason for the delay, the defendant’s assertion of his right to a speedy trial, and any prejudice to the defendant.
In Beaufort County, a speedy trial is getting harder to come by.
In March, 14th Circuit Solicitor Duffie Stone asked a Beaufort County Council committee for funds to hire more lawyers because at the time the county’s case backlog had grown so much during the COVID-19 pandemic that he estimated it would take 4 1/2 years to get back pre-pandemic levels.
Defense attorney Anthony Dore told The Island Packet at the time that significant delays would hamper court cases as “witnesses may not be around anymore, law enforcement may have retired or moved to another department.”
Backlogs in other parts of the state vary by circuit and statistics on each circuit are available online through the South Carolina Judicial Branch website. At the end of June, for instance, 46,383 cases were pending statewide., with 19 percent of those cases pending for 731 days or more.
Stone gave an update on the situation in the 14th Circuit this month.
“Measures taken after March 2020 to stem the spread of COVID-19 included shutdowns of many court operations, including jury trials. Unfortunately, crime continued unabated. As a result, the 14th Circuit Solicitor’s Office confronted a record 5,745 pending cases by the end of May 2021. If the office were to continue disposing of cases at the same rate as it has in years immediately preceding the pandemic, it would take seven years just to clear the backlog,” Stone wrote, adding that he had a plan to reduce the backlog.
The five-part plan includes:
no plea deals, instead prosecutors will make sentence recommendations
updating the intake and analysis system to have prosecutors, within 24 hours of an arrest, call and meet with officers and victim advocates reach out to victims
direct presentment to the grand jury to fast-track more complex cases and bypass the warrant and the preliminary hearing stages.
hiring additional prosecutors
posting monthly updates on the case load
We hope Stone’s plan reduces what has become an unacceptable backlog of cases, but it has already faced criticism from the bench.
At a June 24 bond hearing, 14th Circuit Judge Carmen Mullen took issue with eliminating plea deals.
“I don’t think anything the solicitor’s office is saying or doing has helped in any way as far as your announcement to move cases,” Mullen said in court. “We all know that that didn’t work. Not negotiating.”
Stone, for his part, said his intent was to reassure the public that his prosecutors won’t cut deals just to reduce the backlog.
“What’s important for us is to get the right results on every one of these cases,” Stone told The Island Packet. “It’s not to reduce the backlog by offering plea deals.”
In court, Mullen expressed her frustration for victims and the accused.
“We need to try some cases,” Mullen said, “And that’s what we have to do to move it.”
Yes, the pandemic has affected every aspect of our lives including the courts, but the rights of the accused and the suffering of victims didn’t suddenly disappear because of COVID-19.
It is imperative that Stone and county officials commit the necessary resources, including increased funding when needed, to move these pending cases through the judicial system.
The centuries’ old legal maxim “justice delayed is justice denied” rings true each day that the accused sit and wait in jail cells without some resolution, and the victims wonder if they will ever have the opportunity to tell their stories.
Reducing the backlog benefits all of us and may just restore some faith in the judicial process along the way.
