Courts in Western North Carolina were already becoming overburdened prior to COVID-19, due to an overall influx of people, the fentanyl crisis and a lack of resources. Now a backlog of cases, few available court-appointed lawyers and the fact that the majority of judges are in Haywood County have made conditions worse.
That's according to an investigation by the Smoky Mountain News editor Kyle Perrotti. He spoke with BPR’s Lilly Knoepp about the lack of resources for the Western North Carolina court system.
Specifically, Perrotti looked into the 30th District, which is made up of Haywood, Jackson, Swain, Macon, Graham, Clay and Cherokee counties. He spoke with 40 defense attorneys, judges or clerks about some of the issues in the westernmost counties.
The 6th amendment of the constitution enshrines a right to representation and a speedy trial making this an issues of constitutional rights.
Perrotti reported that the need can be seen in data from the North Carolina Administrative Office of the Courts that compared trends in Western North Carolina to the rest of the state.
Across the state, the number of pending felony and district court criminal cases rose 16 percent and 1 percent, respectively. However, some counties in the region saw a sharp increase. In Cherokee County, those same numbers increased to 55 percent and 20 percent. Clay County also saw a 57 percent rise in pending felony cases and a 30 percent rise in DWI cases. Other counties, such as Haywood and Jackson, saw numbers that appear better than the statewide figures.
There are currently six judges authorized for the district. Just one is located outside of Haywood County.
Perrotti says that the top two solutions that came up in his interviews: splitting the district or establishing a public defenders office. He spoke with proponents of both but ultimately these solutions will take resources that aren’t necessarily available.
Find the full article in The Smoky Mountain News.
