As the pandemic forced Philadelphia’s criminal courts to shut down for much of 2020, and some defendants approached a year in jail without a hearing, lawyers began noticing a strange phenomenon. Thousands of cases were all being listed for December status hearings in Room 200 of the Stout Criminal Justice Center.
The problem? There is no such courtroom.
The process of rescheduling those cases is ongoing — court dates are now being scheduled into July, lawyers said. It has become one striking example of the courts’ struggle to adapt, as an escalating backlog has now exceeded 13,000 cases, according to the Defender Association of Philadelphia. Ten months into the pandemic, the rule guaranteeing a speedy trial remains suspended.
Last week, the Defender Association took the unusual step of petitioning the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to intervene. The filing sought release for six people who had been jailed more than 200 days without a preliminary hearing, at which prosecutors must show probable cause that a crime occurred.
“Because nearly all court hearings and trials have either stopped or slowed to a trickle, each petitioner, and hundreds of others like them, have been unable to contest the basis of their confinement,” the Defender Association wrote.
The president judge of Philadelphia’s Municipal Court, Patrick F. Dugan, said in an interview that the courts are navigating a complicated and imperfect process amid unprecedented challenges.
“I have two jobs. One is our mission, which is to do these cases in a fair and expeditious manner for everyone involved,” he said. “But in COVID, the welfare of the people has to be a parallel [concern]. We have to take into consideration the health of our people: the attorneys on all sides, the sheriffs, witnesses, victims, police, anyone involved in our court system.”
Courtrooms where judges once heard more than 50 cases per day are now limited to a few per hour, he said.
And even when the court is ready, other justice system actors may not be.
Last fall, he instituted status calls before preliminary hearings to ensure that all sides would be ready. But of 4,300 hearings scheduled that way, 61% still ended up getting delayed.
The court also, for the first time, began allowing attorneys to file motions electronically to argue for bail reduction and other considerations. “We have expressed to all the attorneys on all sides they can file as many motions” as they’d like, Dugan said. “That hasn’t really happened.”
Dugan said the Room 200 list reflected another attempt to expedite cases. Judges throughout the fall sent cases to that room as a placeholder, hoping COVID rates might “take a turn in the right direction” and allow judges to reschedule those cases promptly. The city’s rising case count, and an outbreak in the city jails, dashed that hope. On Dec. 5, the jails locked down for a month and stopped transporting defendants to court.
Although video preliminary hearings are now available, they’re by request only.
Dugan said Municipal Court now has the capacity to do quasi-virtual hearings, with lawyers and the judge in a courtroom, a defendant on video from the jail, and witnesses and police on video from other locations. The court only recently added the ability for witnesses to testify remotely, said court spokesperson Gabriel Roberts.
Dugan said he was “not happy” with how many virtual hearings had taken place, but declined to say why they had not been more widely adopted.
“Judges, we have to follow a code, and it’s not within us to be able to point fingers in public at criminal justice partners,” he said.