MADISON, Wis. — A mounting backlog of cases in Dane County and others where jury trials remain suspended due to the pandemic will take a lot of patience and months of processing to return to normal, experts say.
While the vast majority of criminal and civil cases do not end in a trial, the pressures that result from trial deadlines help lead to case resolutions–a deadline that’s been absent for more than a year in Dane County after jury trials stopped last March because of the pandemic. In February, there were more than 8,000 open criminal cases alone in the county, which in 2019 and 2020 saw a little more than 3,000 new cases filed each year.
Everyone involved in the system is left to manage the impact.
“People have that weight that’s basically hanging over their head, trying to figure out “What’s going on? What’s my next step?” Anthony Cooper explained, president of the Focused Interruption Coalition. Connected to many people in Madison who are trying to navigate charges during the pandemic, he says many have struggled as their cases remain pending for longer than normal.
That backlog could take a year or more to resolve and bring back to pre-pandemic norms, Madison-area criminal defense attorney Vince Falcone said.
“We’re going to have jury trial after jury trial after jury trial,” he noted. “It’s going to be pure pandemonium when this opens back up.”
In Dane County, trials are set to resume on June 1 according to a recently-approved plan. As virus case counts lower and vaccinations rise, the anticipation of a return to trial has already started motivating prosecutors and defense attorneys to start resolving more cases, Dane County district attorney Ismael Ozanne said.
“Moving forward is going to be hard, because there are an enormous amount of cases stacked up on our attorneys, and the court system, that we’re going to have to work through to get back to where we were pre-pandemic.”
The plan will prioritize criminal cases based on incarcerated defendants, case time limits, victim issues, offense severity, public safety, and case age. Numerous safety precautions like mask-wearing and no-contact processes will be in place for potential jurors, and jurors will be monitored for symptoms and some will have pandemic-related deferral options if at high risk or in a vulnerable population. Keeping trials on hold for longer than a year is a result of trying to manage competing responsibilities for public safety as well as constitutional rights to a speedy trial, Dane County president judge Valerie Bailey-Rihn said.
“If you have jury members that are more concerned about their personal health and getting out of this building…it’s hard to expect them to do that and concentrate on the weighty task they have,” she noted.
Going forward, other pandemic-measures will likely stay in place due to their benefit on the justice system. Continued use of Zoom for initial appearances or shorter hearings will likely stay, Ozanne said, because it helps contribute to fewer missed court dates–a major driver of jail population.
A national commission on COVID-19 and criminal justice put together a set of findings and recommendations for the post-pandemic criminal justice world, including managing case backlogs across the country as more counties and states open up jury trials amid rising vaccinations. Commission member Hon. Tina Nadeau said a few key solutions will include more settlement conferences, sharing caseloads with other counties, and identifying the cases with quick resolutions.
“Get those cases done; you can get those done ten days after arrest in most cases,” she said. “Pay attention to those early case resolution opportunities.”
This is Part 2 in a series focused on delayed justice during the COVID-19 pandemic; click here for Part 1.
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