An opinion piece highlights the severe challenges faced by Alaska's criminal legal system, particularly the overwhelming caseloads of public defenders and prosecutors. The author, a public defender, explains how these large volumes lead to extensive trial delays, impacting defendants' rights and well-being.
Opinion: Alaska ’s criminal legal system is drowning. But there’s another side to the story on trial delays.The Boney Courthouse, photographed on Sept. 6, 2024 in Anchorage.
For any report of a suspected crime, a prosecutor must decide whether to pursue charges. Even after a case is filed, the prosecutor can drop charges at any time, a power even judges don’t have. But Alaska prosecutors often carry hundreds of cases at once, far more than they can bring to trial. Prosecutors must carefully review the evidence in each case. This process takes time.
Meanwhile, public defenders struggle to defend their clients amid a constant flood of calls, jail visits, court hearings, evidence to review and new case assignments. Because of the workload, most trial-level attorneys leave within a few years. This guarantees a persistent shortage of public defenders qualified to handle complex felony cases. Each time an attorney leaves, a new one has to start on those cases from scratch. So, they are continued.
In the meantime, defendants suffer and deteriorate. Their constitutional right to the presumption of innocence, gone. People unable to make bail often accept plea bargains so they can get out of jail rather than wait years for a trial. People on pretrial surveillance, as the months and years pass, are increasingly likely to relapse or miss a daily breath test, a mandatory appointment, or a pretrial conference, any of which can be grounds for rearrest.
CRIMINAL JUSTICE ALASKA TRIAL DELAYS PUBLIC DEFENDERS OVERLOADED COURT SYSTEM
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