Alaska Supreme Court Chief Justice Susan Carney defended the court system’s work and laid out plans for the future in a speech to state lawmakers on Wednesday.
Carney spent a significant part of her first State of the Judiciary address responding to concerns raised in recent news stories from the Anchorage Daily News and ProPublica highlighting yearslong delays in court proceedings.
In one case, it took seven years for a sexual assault witnessed by a police officer to go to trial. Another sexual assault case has gone more than a decade without a trial. The reports highlighted the growing time it takes to resolve unclassified felonies, like rape and murder.
Carney said the court system is working to be more efficient. She said courts are now closing more cases than they open every year, and the number of open cases is down by a third over the past year.
"But we know that we have more work to do," she said. "Reducing the number of open criminal cases and the time it takes to get them done is our No. 1 priority at all levels of the court."
Yearslong delays are “not typical," she said. The average misdemeanor is resolved in six months or less, and felonies short of the most serious charges typically are closed in roughly a year, according to figures she outlined to lawmakers. Unclassified felonies, including rape and murder, take an average of three years — triple what they took a decade ago.
Carney highlighted a few efforts aimed at making courts more efficient — things like rules limiting delays, calling retired judges in to hear cases, and training aimed at speeding the process. But Carney told lawmakers that there’s only so much the court system can do.
"Three years is a long time for victims and for other people involved in those cases," she said. "But those are the most serious cases. The facts tend to be more complicated. The number of people tend to be larger. The evidence issues that can arise can be very complex, and there's always constitutional concerns. It's very hard to shorten the time that those cases get."
Carney also discussed efforts to expand restorative justice, mediation and collaboration with tribes. And she said the court system plans to release a “cutting edge chatbot” powered by artificial intelligence to deal with the complexities of the legal system when a loved one dies.
Carney also asked lawmakers to support the court system’s budget requests, including the next phase of a project that would add new courtrooms in Palmer to support the fastest-growing area of the state.
Carney presides over the state’s first majority-female Supreme Court and delivered the speech to a Legislature that also includes the state’s first majority-female House of Representatives.
"This has been a long time coming," she said. "But what an example for Alaska's children — that they can aspire to these kind of positions and know that they can achieve them."
