This article was created for Propublica’s local reporting network in collaboration with Anchorage Daily News. Sign up for Dispatch to get stories like this as soon as it is published.
The Chief Justice of the Alaska Supreme Court told state lawmakers this week that the court system is taking steps to reduce the time it takes for criminal cases to reach trial.
Judge Susan M. Carney said in a state of an annual judicial speech with lawmakers on Wednesday at the Capitol in Juneau, when the court system increased the training of judges, created new policies on postponements and certified overtime costs. He said. She noted that the mission of the court system involves determining cases “in speed and in good faith.”
“You probably know that we don’t meet expectations for a quick part of that mission — ourselves or Alaskans,” Carney said.
Focusing on “recent media accounts,” Carney said the state has achieved status and solving the issue is “our number one priority.”
“We need to improve the way we handle criminal cases to prevent that kind of delay,” Carney said.
Daily News and Propublica said in January that Alaska’s most serious felony case could take five, seven or ten years to reach trial, as judges approve dozens of delays. I’ve reported it. These delays are either because the defense is waiting for the prosecutor to share evidence, or because the lawyer has a high caseload for the lawyer to juggle, or even as a tactic to weaken the prosecutor’s case over time. , may be requested.
The most serious felony, such as murder and violent sexual assault, which are categories of cases investigated by Propublica and Daily News, took a median of three years to complete the judicial system in 2023, and from 2013, the 3rd year. It has doubled.
The newsroom has identified one case that a judge described as one of the most “terrifying” sexual assaults he has ever seen, and has been delayed at least 74 times in a decade.
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The Alaska judicial system and lawmakers were aware of serious pretrial delays long before Covid-19 disrupts courts, particularly the anchorages. In 2009, a report by the National State Court Center said that the time to resolve felony criminal cases in Anchorage has increased by nearly 400% over the past decade.
While acknowledging the long delays explained in the news report and the impact on the victims and defendants of major felony, Carney told lawmakers that less serious criminal cases will be resolved in most cases within the system. He told Congress it wouldn’t take that long.
“They’re a great judge,” said Carney, a Fairbanks judge who was appointed to the Supreme Court in 2016 and became the Supreme Court this year.
Carney said the median time to close misdemeanor cases is more than six months. Less felony lawsuits, including vehicle theft and certain assault charges, were settled within a median of six months, she said. Some Class A felony, including sexual assault, manslaughter and drug charges, takes a median of 13 months.
Carney also noted that only about 3% of criminal cases are on trial. Many people resolve when the defendant is likely to be found guilty by the ju-trial or when the prosecutor agrees to plead guilty to reducing the charges, not when he issues the charges. .
Carney creates new restrictions for lawmakers on the number of times and periods of delays that judges can delay cases, and how to dedicate a third of the annual meeting to reduce the number of cases pending He said he trained on.
Currently, more cases are closed than the number of open cases are open, with the number of open cases falling by a third from a year ago, marking the first number of open criminal cases since 2018. He said he made it the lowest.
Anchorage police say they witnessed sexual assault in public. It took seven years for the case to go to trial.
“So we’re making progress,” Carney said. Carney spent nearly 30 years as an attorney for the Alaska Public Defense Agency and Public Advocacy Bureau.
She did not specifically provide caseload figures on uncategorized felony, a serious crime category focused on Propublica and Daily News.
Alaska’s slow judicial system has clearly impacted crime victims, defendants and communities.
Daily News in October and Propoblica’s report revealed that the city of Anchorage dismissed hundreds of criminal cases in 2024. The dismissed cases included domestic violence assault and child abuse charges.
State prosecutors responded to the investigation by providing additional staff to help the city keep the case moving.
