Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

DPA Says District Not Backlogged In Its Capital Felony Cases

There is no serious backlog of cases two years old or older in the Eighth Judicial Circuit District.

According to the criminal caseload history for the fiscal year 1995-96, as provided by 8th Judicial District Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Danny Rodgers, the figure is 5 percent for criminal cases. However, this same document shows the amount of cases two years old or older in the single-county 9th District to be 8 percent.

Henry Morgan, Prosecuting Attorney in the 9th District, had claimed 30 percent of the cases in the 8th District were more than two years old.

Rodgers pointed out the felony cases in this district is 8 percent, while only a scant 1 percent of felony cases in Nevada County are more than two years old.

For the 8th District's felony cases, this number is only 3 percent, while in the 9th District, where Morgan plies his trade, the figure is actually 11 percent.

Rodgers said Morgan may have been including civil cases along with the criminal cases for the figures he gave.

In fact, the caseload summary shows there to be no capital felony cases in the 8th District two or more years old, though there are four capital felony cases in Nevada, Hempstead and Lafayette counties which are more than a year old. One each in Hempstead and Lafayette counties, and two in Nevada County.

Morgan made the remarks concerning a backlog of cases in the 8th District after a rumor began circulating about the 8th and 9th Districts merging.

Should this happen, Miller and Lafayette counties would remain in the 8th District, while Hempstead, Nevada and Clark would make up the new 9th District.

Of the 25 judicial districts in the state, only six are single-county districts.

Morgan said it would be detrimental for Clark County judges and attorneys to have to travel to Hope or Prescott to get court orders signed, as this is where the presiding judges would most likely come from.

Morgan has stated the 9th District judge hears 1,900 cases per year, while judges in the 8th District hear more than 1,600 each annually. However, this translates into more than 6,400 cases heard yearly.