Editorial: Courts get back to speedy trials

Allegheny and Westmoreland county courts are both getting back to business.

Plexiglas shields will stand between the judge and the lawyers. Social distancing is being promoted in the gallery. Hearings will be staggered to limit the number of people in the courtroom.

But those appearances are being scheduled. The court machinery is starting to turn again.

Good. Regardless of the necessity of an emergency response, the function of a court is not one of those things that can be long delayed.

For one thing, that’s a practical statement. Even if we could press pause on an existing court case, that doesn’t mean the things that bring people into court stop just because of an earthquake or a fire or a pandemic. Traffic lights are run, money is stolen and people get hurt. While the number of police calls has dropped, it hasn’t disappeared.

But for another, it’s a legal and logistical consideration, too. Pennsylvania’s rules of criminal procedure require a speedy trial. So does federal law. That means that, as a rule, a defendant is supposed to see a jury within 365 days of charges being filed.

Can either side ask for a continuance? Yes. But not indefinitely. Especially when a defendant is in custody before trial, the court must — or should be — cognizant of the fact a person is being held without yet being convicted. There are provisions for that to happen legally, but the law doesn’t expect due process in overdue course.

To date, the county courts have done their best to move things along during the coronavirus lockdowns. They have utilized videoconferencing to progress the cases of inmates in custody. Preliminary hearings, formal arraignments, pretrial appearances and guilty pleas have been processed with an increasing load.

But there are some things that just can’t be handled that way. A jury trial demands a very human aspect. There is something about the rites and rituals of a court proceeding that lends weight to the words and deliberation to the decisions.

There are others that shouldn’t be handled that way. Judges should look a defendant in the eye at sentencing, so that both of them appreciate the gravity of the penalty. It is too easy to dismiss a person as a case number over a video screen and too simple to believe that’s what happened if the judge isn’t in the same room.

Let’s hope the courts continue to utilize the technology to its fullest for the pro forma appearances that are more about checking boxes and arguing legal minutiae, streamlining that process as much as possible. The faster and easier that is, the more of those important face-to-face hearings can be scheduled without delay.

And that should happen whether there is a pandemic or not. Court should always operate just slow enough to be thorough but fast enough to be fair.