Court Opinion

ID: 9483712
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 09:29:43.442818+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:49:48.066530
License: Public Domain

MERRITT, Chief Judge,
concurring.
I concur in the result that the case should be dismissed because it was not brought within the 70 days required by the Speedy Trial Act. I write separately to point out facts concerning the criminal case load in Memphis that are a contributing cause. As a result of programs developed by the Department of Justice, many routine drug and firearms cases like this one have been taken from state law enforcement officials and state prosecutors by federal officials for prosecution in the federal courts. This has overtaxed the capacity of the federal courts and public defenders in Memphis. The District Court last year spent 70% of its trial time in criminal cases. The result is a backload of civil cases and difficulty in scheduling for trial criminal cases on a timely basis. Figures from the clerk’s office in Memphis suggest the cause of the problem. The number of criminal defendants in firearms cases has increased *206almost tenfold from 1986 to 1992 — from 9 to 85. The number of drug cases has increased from 54 to 184 with 239 criminal defendants.
The federal courts, with less than 10% of the judges of general jurisdiction in the United States, were not intended to take the place of state courts for routine offenses in which both courts have concurrent jurisdiction. Under the system of federalism devised by our founders and maintained until recently, federal prosecutors have not sought to displace the state systems of criminal justice in routine cases. This is no longer the case as routine street crime cases like this firearms case are brought in federal court in order to insure longer sentences under the sentencing guidelines and mandatory minimum sentencing laws (here a fifteen year sentence).
The prosecutorial arm of the federal government has increased dramatically since 1981. The budget of the United States Attorneys offices, for example, has increased 6 fold to just under $1 billion in the last decade. During this period, in which local law enforcement has been displaced in many eases, the problem of street crime has greatly increased. At the same time the costs of enforcement at the federal level have skyrocketed.
The federal courts can process only a finite number of criminal cases. The Speedy Trial Act expressly states that overcrowded criminal dockets do not justify delaying the trial of cases. The only remedy therefore under the Act may be the dismissal of some criminal cases. When that course becomes necessary, district courts should give serious consideration to dismissal of those cases in which federal courts share jurisdiction with state courts. This will require dismissing those routine street crime cases in which the state courts have concurrent jurisdiction with the federal courts so that those cases can go forward in state court, as in the past.