COVID-19 trial shutdown has left Macon courts with 936 case backlog, years of work
Murder cases are not like fine wine. They don’t typically get better with age.
At least for prosecutors.
Drawn-out cases, the thinking goes, can wither as witnesses forget details and sometimes die, or as evidence, from time to time, gets misplaced or lost.
It is debatable which side if any — the government or the defense — stands to benefit from the COVID-19 pandemic-caused halt to jury trials across the country.
“It can be argued that it cuts both ways,” said Towaliga Judicial Circuit District Attorney Jonathan L. Adams, who oversees cases in Monroe, Lamar and Butts counties.
But in general, he said, “Delay is the friend of the defense.”
However, a defendant awaiting trial and unable to post bond while locked in a crowded jail during a pandemic likely has more immediate concerns. And the U.S. Constitution guarantees a right to a “a speedy and public trial.”
“When you’re in custody ...there’s no way of knowing when you’re going to get your trial,” Macon defense attorney Laura Hogue said.
More than 900 criminal cases
In Macon, there are more than 900 criminal cases in the pipeline awaiting adjudication. Roughly a tenth of those involve murder cases, often the most time-consuming matters the criminal justice system deals with.
Bibb County saw a record number of homicides in 2020, 51 in all, and though not all of those deaths will result in murder charges or trials, a substantial percentage will.
When added to an already backlogged trial calendar with at least some murder cases still on the books from half a decade back, digging out from the COVID-19 shutdown will only take longer.
That said, just because a case is older or has been awaiting trial longer won’t necessarily mean it will be heard first.
“In the perfect world you take the oldest case first, right?” asked Bibb Superior Court Judge Howard Z. Simms, who presides over the county’s most serious criminal trials. “It doesn’t always work out that way, because the oldest case may have issues that the newest case doesn’t.”
Jury trials will resume... eventually
A couple of years ago, Simms was on the bench for 28 trials.
“It’s gonna be a while,” he said, “before we get back to that production level.”
When the coronavirus spread begins to show a definitive decline, jury trials here could begin sometime in the next few months.
“I don’t know if it will be March or April or May before we get started,” Simms said.
“Provided the numbers keep (going down), I’m thinking within the next 90 days or so we ought to at least be able to start back with jury trials. I don’t know how many we’re gonna be able to try at one time. ... It’s not gonna be an all-of-a-sudden, we’re-back-at-full-speed kind of a thing.”
The judge said the pandemic has not only affected trials, but also plea negotiations that often close cases without the need for trials.
“Once we’re in the position where people can be face-to-face, I think a lot of stuff will move quicker,” Simms said. “It’s just gonna take a while for us to dig out. ... The first few jury trials we have are really gonna be sort of experiments to see whether we can keep people apart and effectively do this.”
Safety in the courtroom
Jury rooms in Bibb County are relatively small spaces, and in order for proceedings to safely resume, smaller courtrooms may have to double as deliberation rooms.
Another concern will be whether prospective jurors feel safe enough to gather in courtroom settings.
Judges aren’t likely to order anyone who doesn’t feel safe serving on a jury to do so in the near future. But coronavirus issues will no doubt affect jury selection for months to come.
Bibb County has recently convened a grand jury.
At a news conference earlier this month, Macon Judicial Circuit District Attorney Anita Reynolds Howard said those panelists told her they were comfortable being there.
“From what I could tell, the grand jurors felt safe,” she said. “And I think the other jurors will feel safe as well.”
She said the hope is to begin having trials again in nearby Peach County sometime in April. Macon could soon follow suit.
“The wheels of justice, they are turning very, very slowly. And we want that to change,” Reynolds Howard said.
Bibb may be a little later resuming, but she said her staff was preparing “to get these cases tried.”
She was referring to some of the 936 cases in various stages on the courthouse runway.
Reynolds Howard spoke frankly when a reporter asked how long it might take to dispose of the backlog.
“Years,” she said. “They are projecting throughout the state that it will take at minimum two to three years.”