Starting this January, Superior Court is making a change in the scheduling of the criminal trial dockets. The actual number of weeks available for trials will remain about the same, but the trial weeks will be scheduled once per month instead of once every two months. This change will facilitate the scheduling of trials and assist the court in making sure the defendant’s trial rights are respected. While better in some ways, this change will create more work in for the supporting people who actually do the work of record keeping, serving subpoenas, summoning jurors, filing and scheduling motions and many other things. I thank them for the hard work they do in making the criminal justice system work.

Several cases are moving along:

The case involving the murder charge against Sherman Akina is moving through the discovery phase. There are still a number of items at the state crime lab that are being processed and reports of the examination of those items will be prepared. The defense attorney is consulting with witnesses and preparing the case for the defense.

The Attempted Kidnapping charge against Mr. Jason R. Foster has been amended to Kidnapping. This case is also is proceeding toward the resolution phase, either by a trial or plea. There still are motions that will be heard and legal issues ruled upon by the court.

The murder case against Raymond Rudd, 50, in the killing of his half-brother in Addy in September is also moving forward. There are still reports that are being prepared and evidence analyzed. The defense is preparing the defense and the state is likewise getting acquainted with and organizing the evidence that will be used at the trial.

While dates have been set for these cases, it is most common that most serious cases take many months to prepare. Pre trial delays are sometimes hard for the public and families of victims and the accused to understand, but before either party can be ready to try the facts to a jury, the facts must be known. That is what is going on now in all these cases.

It is important to remember that simply because a charge against someone has been filed, that is not evidence of guilt. A person is presumed innocent until that person either pleads guilty or is found not guilty or guilty by the court and/or a jury.