Source: Ledger-Enquirer (GA) Contact: http://www.l-e-o.com/ Copyright: 1998 Ledger-Enquirer Author: Jim Houston, Staff Writer Pubdate: Sun, 06 Dec 1998 UNINDICTED INMATES ADD TO CROWDING More than 80 Muscogee County Jail inmates have been held without indictment for more than three months, with some unindicted more than nine months after being jailed. "What if they picked you or me up tomorrow and took us down there and we didn't do it?" asked Tillman Wells Sr., whose son was locked up nine months ago today, but hasn't been indicted. "If it was me, I'd be pitching a fit," said Wells. Georgia law says a person who is jailed for more than 90 days without indictment has a right to a reasonable bond. Wells said he doesn't know whether his son did what he's charged with -- two counts each of selling marijuana and cocaine, and charges of possessing cocaine and marijuana with intent to distribute. But he shouldn't have to sit in jail indefinitely with no bond on the drug sale charges and without seeing a lawyer or a judge, he said. "There's been a tragedy imposed when a person spends nine months in jail without an indictment," said Muscogee Superior Court Judge John Allen, to whom Wells' case is assigned. "There has obviously been a breakdown in the system," Allen said. Moments after a reporter showed Allen a report indicating he had been assigned cases of 24 jail inmates unindicted after 90 days -- including 14 held for more than 160 days -- Allen ordered his secretary to schedule a 12:15 p.m. Monday meeting with all prosecutors involved in those cases. He said he will expect an explanation for the failure to indict each case. A report is routinely forwarded each month to Chattahoochee Circuit Chief Judge Kenneth Followill as a result of a Georgia Supreme Court rule change in 1985. The change made judges, instead of the district attorney's office, responsible for ensuring cases proceeded to indictment without unreasonable delay. A delay in indicting a case not only causes a person who is presumed to be innocent to spend more time in jail, it adds to jail overcrowding by delaying the transfer to state prisons of those eventually indicted, convicted and sentenced to prison. On Oct. 23, there were 927 inmates in the Muscogee County Jail, which was built to accommodate 575. Although it's the district attorney's responsibility to present criminal cases to the grand jury for indictment, Allen said the judge is ultimately responsible for moving cases assigned to him. Muscogee County District Attorney Gray Conger said a combination of problems have caused some cases to be delayed in reaching the grand jury. "Every case should be indicted by the 90-day period," said Conger. "Obviously, some are not. "The biggest problem we've been having lately is that Georgia's crime laboratory is somewhat overloaded," said Conger. "Sometimes it can take four to five months to get a lab report. "You don't want to indict somebody without a lab report. You don't want to charge somebody with having drugs and then get a report saying they weren't drugs." Sometimes, a second analysis is required in a case, and if it requires a DNA test, that science takes even longer, he said. "We have always stressed getting cases to the grand jury quickly," said Conger. "We're surely going to stress it even more. We're giving more priority to jail cases than to non-jail cases." The prosecutor also said inmates are occasionally held on state charges, although the United States Attorney's office plans to indict them in federal court. A federal speedy trial provision requires a case to be tried within 120 days, but there is no such provision in Georgia law. If not indicted within 90 days, Georgia law says a person must be granted a reasonable bond. Only after indictment can the accused file a demand for trial in state courts, with a trial then required during that term or the following term of court. Followill, who receives a monthly report of all jail cases that have gone more than 90 days without indictment, said he has raised the issue of the unindicted cases with prosecutors in his court. "Some reasons have been satisfactory. Some have not," he said. Superior Court Judge Bill Smith said he also gets a monthly report showing the progress of cases assigned to his court. "Any time they get over 90 days, my secretary calls the DA's office and wants to know why it hasn't moved," he said. "We do a little more than just monitoring." Allen said he hasn't been getting such reports, but will in the future. In many cases, such as Wells', a person who cannot make bond or afford an attorney must rely on a court-appointed attorney. But that creates a Catch-22 situation. After a preliminary hearing, an inmate is not likely to see another attorney until after he is indicted -- and if he's not indicted for months, he has no attorney to force the issue or request a bond reduction. Muscogee Public Defender Richard O. Smith said his lawyers are handling 250-300 cases each, when ideally they should have no more than 150 or so. The result is they're not able to spend time reaching indigent inmates charged and jailed but not yet indicted, he said. "The problem is everyone has more cases than they can handle. Something can get lost in the shuffle," said Smith. Superior Court Judge Robert Johnston, who had 10 cases unindicted after more than 90 days, said it's important for the district attorney and public defender staffs to work together. It's the only way the system can work as intended, he said. Attorney Bill Wright, who is assigned many indigent defendants' cases in Judge Smith's court, said there's little an attorney can do about the unindicted case when there are so many demanding attention who have already been through indictment. "I know we have some who have been in jail so long, they're willing to plead guilty just to get out," he said. - --- Checked-by: Don Beck