Courts wrap up more cases in 2007

Superior Court judges oversaw the closure of nearly 2,500 criminal cases in Richmond County in 2007, an analysis by The Augusta Chronicle has found.

"Wow. That's good," Judge Duncan D. Wheale said when told the results, which showed all but about 20 percent of the cases pending in 2007 for at least three months had been closed.

In the past, when cases were not assigned to judges, far fewer cases were closed and it took longer to complete.

In 2004, the last full year before the Georgia Supreme Court insisted the Augusta Judicial Circuit change its case assignment system, about a third of the cases scheduled for trial remained open at the end of the year. That number did not include open cases that had not been scheduled for trial.

Last year, 3,626 defendants stood accused of felony crimes in Richmond County Superior Court. By the end of the year, 865 of their cases were still open, although 155 of those defendants were indicted in December.

Chief Judge J. Carlisle Overstreet said he was pleased to hear the numbers. He said he believes the percentages would be similar in the circuit's other two counties, Burke and Columbia.

Richmond County has the highest caseload, and it has the largest number of people incarcerated pending trial. It costs taxpayers about $45 a day for each of those defendants.

"We assume the jail is a pressure cooker," Judge Overstreet said.

The judges are trying to move the cases through the system as fast as possible to reduce the time defendants spend in the city's jails. At least 1,500 defendants were jailed pending trial in 2007.

Though speedy trials are important, Judge Wheale said some cases shouldn't be rushed.. For example, last week he had specially set a murder case for trial, but days before the trial was to begin, the prosecutor and defense attorney asked for a postponement because witnesses were unavailable, Judge Wheale said. If he had denied the request, it might have forced the case to trial without crucial witnesses or forced the prosecutors to reduce the charges in hope of salvaging the case with a guilty plea, the judge said.

Of the five judges handling criminal cases, Judge Wheale had the highest number of murder defendants: 21. Judge Overstreet had the fewest, at six, according to The Chronicle 's review.

Of the criminal cases filed or pending in 2007, 1,404 were drug offenses, 1,171 were property crimes and 819 were violent crimes. Other categories included weapon and driving crimes. The category with the largest percentage of open cases at the end of the year was violent crimes.

That makes sense, said Judge Danny Craig, a former district attorney.

"The numbers you have provided regarding a relatively higher number of violent crime cases pending confirms that the court's resources and the jail facilities are being more efficiently utilized in the cases where they are needed," Judge Craig wrote in an e-mail.

The judge, a supporter of the case assignment system instituted in the middle of 2005, said the proof of its success is in the numbers.

"It is important to recognize that complex cases will never move as quickly as those with limited numbers of issues and witnesses and, just as significantly, the less complex cases should be treated as such. In that way, the docket accurately reflects those cases that require most of the court's resources," Judge Craig wrote.

The judges say they are hopeful that once drug court begins to weed out defendants with drug offenses, the caseload will also decrease.

The drug court will filter out those people who could benefit from close monitoring and drug treatment.

The largest percentage of felony cases in 2007 was drug crimes.

Reach Sandy Hodson at (706) 823-3226 or sandy.hodson@augustachronicle.com.