Nearly 9,000 cases await trial, 2600 stalled drug cases
“I’m confident that in the next two or three months we’ll probably have a plan to move forward,” Russ Goodman told News4.
He is surveying options but is hesitant to reveal details, though one possibility is incentives for guilty pleas early in the legal process.The latest figures provided by the Houston County Circuit Clerk’s Office shows 2575 felony drug cases where forensics results have not been received. Some of those cases date to 2017.
Without those results, cases can’t proceed to grand juries for possible indictments because the state cannot prove identity of the drugs. Court Clerk Carla Woodall blames the lag on several factors, none more than the shutdown of a state lab in Dothan about 14 years ago, a vital investigative tool shuttered for financial reasons.She also said COVID and manpower shortages have contributed to the issue.
Woodall puts her support behind Goodman, who took office in January, in seeking solutions to the case backlog.Over $5 million has been allocated to build a new state forensics drug lab in Dothan but no specific construction plans have been announced.
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