Attorneys dealing with double the criminal cases a year after the Task Force’s arrival
Attorneys saw criminal cases as much as triple under the Task Force. After a year, they’re still doubled.
One year ago, the Memphis Safe Task Force arrived in Memphis with unprecedented federal and state resources and making thousands of arrests in the course of 12 months.
Those arrests then turned into criminal cases that landed on attorneys’ desks.
In mid-October of last year, federal Magistrate Judge Jon York wrote that the Task Force’s law enforcement surge was “straining” the federal public defender’s office and all Criminal Justice Act attorneys could “expect a noticeable increase in appointments in the coming weeks and perhaps months.” A few weeks later, Shelby County District Attorney General Steve Mulroy even floated the idea of a new night court to keep up with the increase in his assistant district attorneys’ caseload.
For the first few months of the Task Force, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Tennessee saw its caseload triple.
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Mary Evans
Mary Evans reports on public safety for The Daily Memphian. She previously wrote for the Clarion-Ledger and got her start at Ole Miss' The Daily Mississippian. When she's not in a courtroom or cheering on the Rebs, you can find her trying new recipes from The New York Times, running in Overton Park or scavenging for treasure in estate sales.
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