Court Backlog of Criminal Cases Blamed for Crime Spree in Mobile, AL
City officials say that 142 murder cases are awaiting a grand jury and 193 murder cases are awaiting a jury trial — all of which are clogging up the judicial system.
Landwebs
Mobile, Alabama city leaders, including the mayor and current and former police chiefs, blasted the state of the criminal justice system for contributing to a wave of violence in the city, with much of the blame being placed on a backlog of court cases awaiting jury trials in Mobile County, reports Alabama.com. City officials say that 142 murder cases are awaiting a grand jury and 193 murder cases are awaiting a jury trial. The latest crime wave comes after Mobile set a new one-year record for homicides in 2021 and has been marked by over a dozen police reports of shootings occurring from March 18-20 alone. A special court to assist authorities in speeding up the judicial backlog has since been set up, emphasizing a focus on catching up with criminal trials involving violent offenders, and the city is also planning to increase police officer pay in the coming year in an effort to reverse a trend of declining personnel as the city lost 111 police officers over the past 12 months.
