Dear John,
Reuters recently published the results of an in-depth investigation into deaths in United States jails. Their efforts to document such deaths from 2008-2019 identified 7751 people who died in jail, and get this—about 2/3 of them, nearly 5000 people, died without having been convcted of the charges for which they were held.
As the Reuters report points out, "The Sixth Amendment assures speedy trials, but does not define speedy." Reuters' data demonstrates that this was already a serious problem before COVID-19—and increasingly so, with death rates rising 35% in that timeframe.
But now? People accused but not convicted are being held in these facilities which are notorious for overcrowding, substandard provisions for hygiene, and medical neglect. Assurances that everyone who didn't absolutely need to be incarcerated pretrial (as they should have been LONG before a pandemic) still do not seem to have panned out.
While plea bargains and bench trials continued uninterrupted or quickly resumed early in the pandemic, jury trials have stalled out for 6, 7, 8 months and more. Even where they are officially resuming, they are resuming at such a slow rate that backlogs are continuing to worsen with most people still effectively being detained indefinitely. Speedy trials are being administratively suspended and legislatures in many states are working to support that on a permanent basis with official changes to state statutes.
What all this boils down to is that many people in jail awaiting their day in court are left with the choice of indefinite detention in perhaps the most physically dangerous conditions in jails in my lifetime or forfeit their right to trial by jury.
The one bright spot I have seen so far is this: in one California case, a federal judge has dismissed an indictment against a single defendant with prejudice (meaning he cannot be indicted again on those same charges). The chief judge of the court in which the accused's proceedings are taking place continues to refuse to resume trials by jury despite other official business taking place in that same courthouse, numerous businesses in the same county operating on an in-person basis, and a grand jury resuming indictments in a large room in that very same courthouse.
At long last, a judge has enforced the speedy trial provision of the constitution! How sad that just one single instance of government enforcing the Constitutionally-guaranteed speedy trial right should feel like a huge victory, though.
You might imagine that I have a few things to say about this...
Indeed, I'll be talking about all this and more this evening at 6:30 pm Mountain time in this week's 15 Minutes with FIJA Zoom meeting. I hope that you will join us to learn more about how crucial is our right to trial by jury—complete with ALL its associated provisions—especially during a pandemic.
Click the orange button to register and you will be sent an email with information for joining the meeting this evening.
