Kathrine Alderman
ECB Publishing, Inc.
Every Wednesday, the Monticello Kiwanis Club holds a meeting. They invite a speaker to come and talk to the members, have lunch and discuss club business while also talking and enjoying their time with fellow club members.
At the Wednesday, Feb. 10, meeting, the speaker for the day was Jack Campbell, the state attorney for Circuit 2. Before he spoke, however, the Kiwanis Club made some announcements and then decided whether they would do the watermelon run for the Watermelon Festival this year. The decision was made rather quickly, deciding they would participate in the event. After that, Max Balinski gave an update on the Kiwanis Club signs in town, talking about how some were in disrepair. Still, they've fixed them now, so everyone knows when and where Kiwanis meets!
After the announcements, Kiwanis Club President Phil Smith introduced Jack Campbell, the speaker for the meeting. During his talk, Campbell's main point was to give the attendees of the meeting an update on the justice system here in Florida and how they have been adapting at their office since COVID-19.
Locally, Campbell said he did do a small personnel change in August. An attorney from down in South Florida, who has been in the office for around 20 years and had some very successful statewide prosecutions, is moving his family up to North Florida and will be working here now. Campbell is excited to welcome him as he says he is one of the best prosecuting attorneys he's met.
Something that has really helped the state attorney's office that Campbell didn't even know would become so important was modernizing the office. When Campbell first ran for his position, part of his campaign was to modernize the office. The updates really helped them keep up with cases, as they haven't had to shut down their offices. "Every day we've had first appearance. Every day we've had juvenile delinquency proceedings. Every day we've been able to continue to do the work that the criminal justice system has to do," Campbell said. He stresses that the most significant reason they're able to continue to do that even during this time of COVID-19 is because they could go to a paperless system. The assistance can do their work from their own homes. They don't have to be in the courthouse or any other facility that has been shut down to do their job. The modernization also extends to them being able to use zoom to continue their regular criminal justice proceedings. They were one of the first offices that were able to do that, and Campbell says that up here, we're doing better than a lot of other places.
Even though they have continued to operate, there is still a considerable backlog of cases. In Jefferson County, about a year ago, the backlogged cases were running at about 392. Now they are running at about 490. Statewide there are 50,000 more criminal cases backlogged in the system. For the second judicial circuit, they were running about 6,200. Now they are at 9,400 criminal cases backlogged. The biggest reason for this backlog is the lack of a jury. "Nothing moves cases faster than jurors in a building," Campbell said. Unfortunately, due to the pandemic, they can't get people in to act as the jury. The Supreme Court has also shut down speedy trial and just about everything else until everyone can be vaccinated.
This circuit was the first in Florida to have a grand jury, having the Leon County grand jury come in August. They've been slowly working their way through cases, but there is still only so much that they can do. Especially here in Jefferson County. The courthouse isn't built to allow everyone to have six-foot spacing, so jury selection is nigh impossible unless they move it somewhere else. They've been looking at trying to figure out how to fix the situation and find a big enough place to fit people. "There is no substitute to having your case tried in person," Campbell said. He mentions that you can do it over zoom. Still, when it comes to court cases, especially criminal court, being in the same room has a lot of impact on how the trial goes. "As an attorney, we've got to try and get back into those courtrooms."
Before this pandemic is over, the Judiciary believes that based on the backed-up litigation and such, there will be a 1 million case backlog in Florida. It'll take a long time to clear the backlog, especially because certain cases can take months to years to fully complete, depending. So, hopefully, the judicial system can return to normal as quickly as possible.
Campbell left the stage with thanks to the Kiwanis club for having him and encouraging everyone in attendance to make sure they do jury duty, as it is a crucial thing to help get the court system going.
The Kiwanis Club meets every Wednesday at noon in the Jefferson County Country Club. Every meeting they'll serve lunch and have a speaker, such as Jack Campbell. So, be sure to check them out this coming Wednesday, and participate in a wonderful club and listen to an engaging speaker.
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