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Sunday, February 14, 2010
Two Blizzards In One Week Creates Court Backlog
Most of the State of Maryland, including courts in the Baltimore area, was shut down last week due to two blizzards which hit the area within days of each other. Last week was certainly historic in many ways for the entire region with schools being closed, businesses forced to shut down and people not being able to leave their houses because their streets were not plowed.
With respect to the court system, the impact on the week long closure could be felt for several months to come. Many District and Circuit Courts already had overcrowded dockets and finding additional room to hear the cases which were postponed due to the blizzards will only add to the problems. In addition, there were many domestic violence protective orders and peace orders which were scheduled to be heard last week in an expedited manner which were not able to be heard by a judge. The fate of these cases is now uncertain.
More problematic though was the inability of the courts to hear bail reviews for incarcerated defendants. When a defendant is arrested, he or she is to have a bail review in front of a judge within 24 hours after arrest or on the next day when the courts are open for business. Under normal circumstances, if a defendant is arrested on a Friday and is unable to post bail he or she would have a bail review on Monday. A defendant arrested on Friday, February 5, 2010 would have to wait 11 days, until courts reopened following the Presidents Day holiday on February 16 to have a bail review. Many of the District Court bail reviews involve petty offenses and the defendants continued detention could overcrowd the local detention centers.
On Friday, February 12th, Anne Arundel County District Court Administrative Judge John McKenna put together a skeletal crew of court personnel to conduct bail reviews even though the court was closed for all other business due to the snow. The court took the highly unusual step of hearing bail reviews on a day when the court was technically closed to avoid having incarcerated defendants wait 11 days for their bail reviews. While the State's Attorneys Office might not have cared one way or another that a person would have to wait such an extraordinary time for a bail review, justice was served on this occasion and the extra effort of all involved should be applauded.
Here is a link to The Capital newspapers article on the bail reviews http://www.hometownannapolis.com/news/for/2010/02/13-15/Snow-keeps-courthouse-closed-which-keeps-34-in-jail.html
posted by
Greg Jimeno
at
5:14 PM
1 Comments:
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