Growing backlog of court cases delays justice for crime victims and the accused
CBSN
A CBS News investigation has uncovered a massive backlog of court cases that has delayed progress on hundreds of thousands of criminal cases across the United States.
CBS News obtained and analyzed data from courts and district attorneys' offices in more than a dozen major American cities and found "pending" criminal cases jumped from 383,879 in 2019, just before the COVID-19 pandemic, to 546,727 in 2021. In California, New York, Florida and Michigan, the number of "pending" cases in 2021 totaled nearly 1.3 million.
The backlog has resulted in delayed justice for crime victims and their families and threatens to deny the constitutional right to a speedy trial for the accused. It also raises concerns of a possible public safety threat, with thousands of convicted criminals remaining free as they await sentencing.
