Opinion ID: 2427838
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: A Judicial Emergency Exists in the District of Arizona

Text: According to 18 U.S.C. § 3174(a), upon application by the district, the judicial council shall evaluate the capabilities of the district, the availability of visiting judges from within and without the circuit, and make any recommendations it deems appropriate to alleviate calendar congestion resulting from the lack of resources. If a judicial council finds no reasonably available remedy, it may declare a judicial emergency and suspend the 70-day time limit for a period up to one year, instead allowing up to 180 days before a trial must commence. See 18 U.S.C. § 3174(b). The time limits to try detained persons who are being detained solely because they are awaiting trial are not affected by the emergency provision. Id. If the time limits are not suspended, the sanction for not bringing a defendant to trial within 70 days of the filing of the indictment is a dismissal of the indictment. See 18 U.S.C. § 3162(a)(2). The statute does not specify what qualifies as an emergency or what factors to assess before determining that there is no reasonably available remedy. In the legislative history of the Speedy Trial Act, many members of Congress commented on the importance of a court's resources to be able to comply with the Act's time limits, and the ability to suspend time limits if a court could not meet those requirements. See 120 Cong. Rec. 41,773, 41,775 (1974). The legislative history supports that an emergency situation would include the death or incapacity of a judge. Id. Congress did not intend that a district court demonstrate its inability to comply with the STA by dismissing criminal cases and releasing would-be convicted criminals into society. See H.R.Rep. No. 93-1508 at 80-82, reprinted in 1974 U.S.C.C.A.N. 7401. In fact, the emergency provision has been used twice previously to avoid imminent criminal dismissals as a sanction for non-compliance. See United States v. Bilsky, 664 F.2d 613, 619-20 (6th Cir.1981) (Sixth Circuit suspended time limits for one year in the Western District of Tennessee shortly after the Speedy Trial Act became effective in 1980); United States v. Rodriguez-Restrepo, 680 F.2d 920, 921 at n. 1 (2d Cir.1982) (Second Circuit approved emergency for the Eastern District of New York, noting the district's burgeoning caseload and calendar congestion.). In addition to the statutory judicial emergency, as outlined above, the District of Arizona also has a judicial emergency as defined by Judicial Conference policy. A vacancy on a district court is considered an emergency if the court's weighted filings exceed 600 per judgeship. The District of Arizona's weighted filings, 653 per judgeship, are high enough that Judge Roll's judgeship became a judicial emergency immediately upon his January 8 murder. See Russell Wheeler and Sarah Binder, Do Judicial Emergencies Matter? Nomination and Confirmation Delay during the 111th Congress. The Brookings Institute, Feb. 16, 2011, at 1, available at http://www.brookings.edu/papers/2011/ 0216_judicial_emergencies_wheeler_ binder.aspx.
The District of Arizona's application includes the late Chief District Judge Roll's letter dated November 24, 2010, Chief Judge Silver's letter dated January 25, 2011, and Chief Judge Silver's Declaration of a Judicial Emergency in General Order No. 11-02. See Tabs A-C. In his letter, Judge Roll reported that the District of Arizona has the sixth-highest weighted and the third-highest un-weighted caseload in the nation. In Fiscal Year (FY) 2009, the District of Arizona ranked first in the Ninth Circuit and third in the nation in criminal case and defendant filings, an increase of 65% since 2008. This increase particularly affects the Tucson division. In his November 24, 2010 letter, Judge Roll explained that the then four active judges and one senior district judge in Tucson were scheduled at that time to hear 919 trials, including 893 jury trials, 73% of which involve either immigration or drag charges. See Tab A at pp. 2-3. It has been the practice of the Tucson judges to set 30 cases for jury trial each Tuesday, but the district judges cannot preside over more than two trials per week. Clearly, that schedule is premised on the likelihood that most cases will plead out, or defendants will agree to a continuance. Now, with Judge Roll's death, resulting in two vacancies on the Tucson bench, the situation has become intolerable. As further described by Chief Judge Silver, since the death of Judge Roll, the three remaining Tucson judges are facing over 1,000 felony cases each. See Tab B at p. 1. Judge Roll's death raised the number of vacancies in the District of Arizona to three, with a vacancy created in Tucson when District Judge Zapata took senior status, and another created in Phoenix when Judge Murguia was elevated to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Id. At this time, there are no nominees for these three vacancies.