Most prosecutors face a backlog of criminal cases. At more than 10,000 cases, the backlog in our circuit is among the highest in the state. Far and away, this will be the most difficult challenge we face over the next four years.
Every year in Spartanburg County thousands of warrants are issued, served, and sent to the solicitor’s office for indictment and prosecution; everything from shoplifting to kidnapping. There are only three ways to resolve a warrant: Take it to trial, plead it out (either to the crime charged or a reduced charge), or dismiss it. All three options have their pitfalls.
We have 24 weeks of criminal court between January and July. If we make perfect use of our court time, we might be able to take 75 cases to trial in these six months. Maybe—if everything works perfectly. So at the end of the day on June 30, 2001, our backlog will stand higher than it does now. So many more cases come into the system each day than can be resolved through trials. Trying cases is most assuredly not the way to reduce a backlog.
The numbers from court administration came this afternoon—an ominous computer printout thicker than our phonebook. We’ve been in court nearly every day since swearing-in on January 10th yet the backlog still exceeds 10,000 cases. I know the only way to reduce the backlog is to dismiss legions of cases. Other solicitors across the state have been here before, and they are nearly unanimous in their advice. I know some cases need to be dismissed. Law enforcement makes mistakes. Facts don’t pan out. Witnesses move and memories change. But I can’t dismiss a case without looking at the file and talking to the victims. This takes time.
We can’t manage the backlog through trials. We aren’t doing our jobs if we dismiss cases arbitrarily. That leaves guilty pleas and opens the Pandora’s box known as “plea-bargains.” Few terms make prosecutors madder than this one. A bargain is when you buy something for less than its worth. What is a case worth if it will never see the inside of a courtroom? What is a case worth if it sits around for years waiting for the backlog to subside? What defendant is going to plead guilty without some incentive?
I worry about my attorneys, especially the new ones. The job would be challenging enough just handling the new cases. Asking them to reduce a backlog they didn’t create is like asking a person to pay off someone else’s debt. It’s demoralizing.
A newspaper reporter calls asking me to respond to a rumor that our office is about to dismiss 3,000 cases. How do these rumors get started? Maybe we need to dismiss 3,000. Obviously we do. We need to start over. But we can’t. Surely this job is not just about shuffling numbers. There has to be another way.
We prioritize. Violent crimes and crimes against children are our priorities. These will be our trials. This leaves property crime victims with less than their full measure of justice. There’s no other way, and all of us are frustrated.
An FBI agent stops by. He’s come to “adopt” a gun case from state court to federal court. Wasn’t it great, I thought, to be part of a system that went looking for cases instead of treading water to stay above the ones already there?
I wish I could talk with him longer. He’s a friend, but there’s a docket to publish. A docket is a list of cases our office plans to call for trial the next week of court. In most states the court controls the docket, but not in South Carolina. The solicitor decides what case to call and when. Dockets let the defense attorneys know which case will be called. We need their help to make sure we don’t set cases for trial that are not ready to be tried. Nearly all defense attorneys in this circuit are straight shooters. We’re lucky.
The docket lists 25 cases—hardly enough to affect the backlog. We must stop the flow of cases into the office. Intervention. Prevention. Adult arbitration. Drug Court. Drug treatment. A moral awakening. Something larger than a prosecutor’s office needs to stem this tide.
I shouldn’t go, but I did. My old colleagues at the U.S. Attorney’s Office are gathering in Greenville to say goodbye to outgoing U.S. Attorney Rene Josey. Appointed by Democrats, Rene is being replaced by a new U.S. Attorney appointed by Republicans. His was a political appointment, but he handled it in a non-political way. Presidential politics claim prosecutors. But not nearly as often as criminal backlogs.
