Connect with us

US News

Criminals Go Free as Court Backlog Keeps Growing

COVID-era criminals go free: Prosecutors dismiss cases as backlog mounts

Published

on

Criminals Go Free as Court Backlog Keeps Growing

The pandemic slowed the criminal justice system to a crawl in much of the U.S., and now an increase in violent crime is straining the system even further.

Why it matters: COVID-19 has caused backlogs in criminal cases across the U.S. to swell, forcing district attorneys to focus on the most violent offenses — and decline, delay or deal down a slew of other cases.

  • “For the prosecution, the older a case gets, the tougher it gets to prove in a lot of cases,” said Billy West, president of the National District Attorneys Association and the D.A. for Cumberland County, N.C.

Details: Prosecutors in Chicago are pleading out or dismissing cases to help shrink the courts’ backlog. And in Oakland, Calif., they’ve had to dismiss old cases amid an uptick in violent crime, Alameda County District Attorney, Nancy O’Malley announced in June.

By the numbers: The number of violent crimes in the U.S. rose by 5.6% in 2020, according to FBI figures released Monday — the first increase in years.

What they’re saying: “Without a substantial change, we are facing the very real possibility that it could take more than three years before some violent crimes make their way to trial and even longer for homicide cases,” Spencer Merriweather, the D.A. in Mecklenburg County, N.C., said earlier this year.

  • Merriweather stopped prosecuting low-level drug offenses in February 2021 to focus on homicides and violent crime, Axios Charlotte’s Michael Graff reports. As of this summer, Merriweather’s team of about 85 prosecutors had 110 murder cases awaiting trial, following two of the city’s deadliest years on record.
  • Beyond those cases, the office is also prioritizing defendants with a history of violent crimes, especially gun crimes, because many homicides are carried out by repeat offenders.

Courts in many parts of the country were closed for part of last year, and virtual hearings didn’t make up for that lost time.

  • The virus can still slow things down now — the trial of former Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes was delayed last month because a juror might have been exposed to COVID.

Read more on AXIOS…

Click to comment
Subscribe
Notify of
guest
0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

Local News

Concerns Grow Over Non-Citizen Voting in Arizona

Published

on

Concerns Grow Over Non-Citizen Voting in Arizona

In Arizona, to vote in federal elections (President, the House, and the Senate) you are required to swear (under penalty of perjury) that you are a U.S. citizen…

But there is no proof requirement.

Official Arizona Secretary of State Citizenship Requirements for Voting:

Source: https://azsos.gov/elections/voters/registering-vote/registration-requirements/proof-citizenship-requirements

The federal government relies on the attestation of the individual, the penalties for false statements, and the states’ efforts to cross-check information to maintain the integrity of the voter registration process (Source).

The process is largely based on the honor system.

The Associated Press recently reported this fact:

Source: https://apnews.com/article/arizona-voting-laws-citizenship-proof-50dafd68f8dd4af5cf669afa62efdf19

Currently, there is no national database or system that verifies the citizenship of voters directly. There is no guaranteed audit at the federal level specifically targeting “federal only” voters who have not provided proof of citizenship.

What about election audits? Wouldn’t non-citizen voters get caught?

Non-citizens in the country on parole awaiting an asylum hearing could potentially be identifiable in databases used for post-election audits, such as the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) program, which is designed to verify the immigration status of individuals (Source).

As for “gotaway” illegal immigrants who evaded entering in a documented fashion, it would be significantly more challenging to identify them in databases for the purposes of a post-election audit.

Since they have not been processed through official immigration channels, they would not have records in the same databases that document legal entries and immigration statuses. Therefore, they would not be easily identifiable through the standard verification processes used in post-election audits.

I’ve seen studies that claim non-citizen and Illegal Immigrant voting is extremely rare… What about those?

Studies such as those from the Brennan Center for Justice (link), indicate that non-citizen voting is extremely rare based on available data and the significant legal risks involved.

However, these studies rely on the analysis of documented cases and official records, which would not include undocumented individuals who evaded detection entirely.

For “gotaway” illegal immigrants, since they lack official records, there would be no straightforward method to audit their voting activity after an election. This is a limitation of the current verification systems, which are designed to prevent ineligible voting using the records available. The rarity of non-citizen voting cited in studies is based on the assumption that the risk of severe penalties, including deportation and imprisonment, serves as a strong deterrent against such actions.

In summary, while there are robust systems in place to deter and detect ineligible voting, the nature of undocumented entry into the country creates a gap in the ability to audit post-election voting activity for those individuals. The extent to which this occurs is unknown, and the studies available do not account for individuals without any official records.

All things considered, voting is only a small fraction of the overall concerns that Americans are expressing related to illegal immigration and asylum into the United States.

Gallup recently reported:

Quote from Gallup:

“For the third month in a row, immigration is the problem Americans name more than any other as the most important facing the U.S. While immigration has not ranked as the top problem often in Gallup’s monthly trend, it stands alone as the most politically polarizing issue in the past 25 years of Gallup’s measurement.

The record surge of migrants at the southern U.S. border in December brought even more focus on the issue — and while attempted crossings have eased slightly since then, they are expected to increase as spring continues. President Joe Biden’s approval rating for his handling of immigration has been persistently poor. With the presidential election about six months away and immigration top of mind, the issue remains a significant vulnerability for Biden as he seeks reelection.”

Source: https://news.gallup.com/poll/644570/immigration-named-top-problem-third-straight-month.aspx

Continue Reading

US News

Illegal Immigration Massively Surges in 2024

Published

on

Illegal Immigration Massively Surges in 2024

Continue Reading

Health

Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber, Has Been Diagnosed with Terminal Cancer

This follows his transfer to a medical facility in December

Published

on

The new comes from a letter he wrote:

Continue Reading

Trending