Prosecutors facing challenges, says DA

Jan. 24—HENDERSON — In Vance County, 59 defendants are charged with murder — cases that are yet pending, as of the time of writing.

Of those, 11 have been pending for more than five years, due to lawyers leaving, mental health litigation, them not being served their indictment or mistrials.

In total, 45 people are currently incarcerated, two outside North Carolina and at least one held at Central Regional Hospital in Granville County, for those cases.

Statewide, around half of all homicide cases go to trial, said District Attorney Mike Waters, compared to other felonies, where less than five% of cases are tried before a jury.

"Our office knows we must have the desire and ability to try cases. I am fortunate to have surrounded myself with some excellent assistant district attorneys."

Nevertheless, the DA's office is facing a few challenges.

"Before the COVID-19 pandemic I told the families of homicide victims that we expect to have a case in a trial posture in two years," said Waters. "That changed during the pandemic. Beginning in March of 2020 the Supreme Court of North Carolina prohibited any jury trials."

Waters' office tried the second jury trial statewide a year later after that prohibition was lifted. It had some ripple effects, such as an overall reduction in juror participation. The pandemic left many people with a bit of anxiety about being in public, and confined spaces out of fear of infection. That problem is improving.

"Those prospective jurors that don't respond must be personally served by the sheriff, which was not done after the pandemic until we were unable to seat a jury for trial at multiple sessions of court," Waters explained.

The pandemic affected on the economy. Many professionals opted to work from home, some doing so even nowadays, while others changed careers entirely.

"This particularly affected the North Carolina State Crime Lab which is responsible for the independent forensic testing of evidence," said Waters.

New forensic scientists need extensive in-house training, meaning when veterans leave, finding replacements is tough. The lab has 40 vacancies, said Waters, leading to increased workload for existing scientists and longer testing times — three years or more is the current wait time for ballistic tool mark analysis, he said.

Those same issues plague the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner as well, as an autopsy could take as long as a year or more to be reviewed and completed.

Even Waters' office is two ADAs short of a full deck. Those ADAs stationed in other counties in Waters' district handle some murder cases in Vance County.

The pandemic also put a wall between lawyers and defendants. Some didn't get to visit their clients for over a year — leading many of the latter to request new representation when court resumed.

"Our judges hold hearings on this issue at almost every session of Superior Court," said the DA. As with many professionals, defense attorneys, too, find other, more lucrative positions and thus stop representing a given client.

"Most recently, the sentencing hearing in State of North Carolina v. Kevin Munn was postponed indefinitely because the lead attorney had to withdraw," said Waters.

"A new attorney has yet to be appointed. Once a new attorney is appointed, I expect it will be nine months to a year before they are ready to go forward."

That new attorney would have to study up on all motions or orders filed as well as the discovery — sometimes thousands of pages and hours of recordings of evidentiary material.

The average North Carolinian homicide case takes 280 hours of preparation, found the National Center for State Courts.

"These 280 hours occur between all the other cases and responsibilities of prosecutors, so you can't just have one ADA prosecute a murder every seven weeks. Homicide cases that proceed to trial will take longer than the 280-hour average."

Recall how eleven of those have been pending for five years or more. Many of the county's oldest cases have defendants who may be mentally unfit to stand trial.

"In several instances with the older cases, defendants were not transported to mental health evaluations or their mental health providers were denied access to the defendants at the jail," said Waters. "When this happens, the case is delayed."

Attorneys are more likely to start practices and join firms in the state's metropolitan areas, leaving Vance County underserved — a "legal desert." Waters expressed concerns that the eCourts initiative, a statewide transition from paper-based filing and record-keeping to digital systems, may put extra pressure on rural practitioners.

"The pilot counties have demonstrated that eCourts will necessarily increase the workload for district attorney's office staff, and consequently could increase the time to case disposition."

Vance County is slated to transition on April 29 alongside 11 other counties.

Each trial term needs a judge, at least one prosecutor though usually two, two clerks, three bailiffs and a court reporter.

"We are all dealing with increasing demands and greater responsibilities, finding ourselves operating at full capacity with resources that cannot fully meet the need despite all our best efforts," said the DA.