Charlotte murder case backlog could stretch years due to COVID-19 shutdown. Now what?

After an eight-month COVID-19 shutdown, the state’s largest local court system faces an immense backlog of violent-crime cases that could clog its dockets for years.

Mecklenburg County District Attorney Spencer Merriweather said Wednesday that his office now has more than 700 felony cases awaiting trial — including 100 homicides and another 150 involving rapes, assaults and other violent offenses.

Meanwhile, Charlotte-Mecklenburg again is on pace to have a near record-year in the number of homicides, further adding to the growing list of suspects — and victims — awaiting justice.

This week, the county is holding its first criminal jury trial since March — part of limited reopening in which the courthouse will operate at well below full capacity.

In response, Merriweather has announced a significant reorganization of his office to put more of his prosecutors on violent offenses.

“Without a substantial change in our course of action after months of court closures, 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,” the Democratic prosecutor said in a statement.

“That is unacceptable for victims, and it is unacceptable for the entire community.”

To free up staff and courtroom space, the DA says he will de-emphasize some less serious crimes. Simple drug possession cases will be referred to treatment agencies. Other nonviolent defendants will be assigned to the county’s Recovery Courts when addiction or some other type of substance abuse is involved.

Merriweather, a former homicide prosecutor, said his office will be using the people and trial times it has to focus on crimes that “most endanger our neighborhoods.” The district attorney’s statement described the backlog of felony cases as “immense.”

“There’s just no way I can assign a significant amount of resources to certain types of cases knowing that there are mothers out there who have lost their children, knowing that there are people in communities literally living in fear,” Merriweather told the Observer in a phone interview Wednesday.

“It would be wrong of me to not get those violent-crime cases to trial as fast as I can.”

“Fast” appear to be a relative term.

Under its COVID-19 protocols, the Mecklenburg courthouse has set aside only one courtroom each day for criminal trials compared to the normal three — meaning that the numbers of outstanding cases are likely to grow until officials free up more space.

In addition, Merriweather said his office will not bring murders, rapes and other serious violent crimes before a jury until the new courtroom protocols to fight COVID-19 prove effective. That’s to prevent the virus from interrupting lengthy and expensive trial, but it further slows catch-up efforts.

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And there’s this: Because of the rash of new COVID-19 cases erupting across the county, the courthouse — and its nascent docket of criminal trials — could be shut down again.

In its reopening plan last month, Mecklenburg court officials said they could end jury trials if the county’s two-week rate of COVID-19 cases hit 100 per 100,000 residents, among other measures. The county’s average for the past seven days — 190 cases per 100,000 — is almost double that.

The rate of positive tests for the disease, however, is 8.3% — below the 10% threshold set by courthouse officials to again consider ending trials.

In the courthouse’s reopening plan, officials pledged that the decision to hold trials will be “guided by science, medical advice and the rights of individuals appearing in court to due process and a fair and open adjudicatory process.”

Senior Resident Superior Court Judge Bob Bell, one of the authors of the reopening plan, told the Observer the courthouse remains in regular contact with the Mecklenburg County Health Department. He described jury trials as “an essential component of the mission of the courts.”

“Based on their guidance and in the belief that we have done all that can practically be done to ensure the well being of all who enter the courthouse, we decided to proceed with a jury trial this week.”

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The first Mecklenburg jury in eight months is hearing a drug-trafficking case before Superior Court Judge Lisa Bell. For health reasons, no Bible was used to swear in witnesses, and jury members sit socially distanced in the visitor’s gallery, not in their usual box, forcing an entire reorientation of the courtroom. The jurors were expected to begin deliberating on a verdict sometime Thursday.

“The trial itself isn’t out of the ordinary,” Lisa Bell, who is no relation to Judge Bob Bell, told the Observer earlier in the week. “We’re just having to do things very differently.”

Bob Bell said the courthouse is doing what it can to maintain safety, but added: “We don’t have control over the health standpoint of this. It literally is a day-by-day operation in that sense.”

‘Status quo is not an option’

In 2019, Merriweather’s office was the subject of a Charlotte Observer investigation, which found that prosecutors in Mecklenburg have dismissed more than two-thirds of weapons charges — and that those whose charges are dropped often are rearrested for more serious crimes, including murder.

From murders to gun violence, DA announces new crackdown on Charlotte’s violent crime

In January, Merriweather announced that gun violence would be one his to priorities in 2020, and that his office would try 20 homicide cases, up from 13 the year before.

A month later, the virus hit and quickly closed down much of the courts normal activity statewide.

Merriweather’s announced reorganization to focus on violent offenses amounts to a reboot of his earlier plan — albeit with more concessions to the virus.

The drop-off in trials for drug possession and other nonviolent offenders will clear up courtroom space for a new 12-member violent crime team, Merriweather said. Another prosecutor will be added to the group that handles homicides.

Even with the changes to address the violent-crime backlog, Merriweather acknowledged that his office “will be dealing with this for a while.”

“You have to start somewhere. Knowing what I know now and knowing what we’ll be looking at, the status quo is not an option,” he said.

“Does that mean we’re going to catch up in a day or a week or a month? No. But it does mean that we’ll be putting our best foot forward and trying to be as effective as we can.”