Only on 9: District attorney hopes legislature will address delays in justice with new prosecutors

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A lack of resources in the North Carolina justice system continues to push back trials -- many who’ve sought justice at the Mecklenburg County Courthouse know the wheels of justice move slowly around here.

Channel 9 Crime Reporter Hunter Sáenz spoke with Mecklenburg County District Attorney Spencer Merriweather about the time it takes to get cases to trial.

“It can take four and a half, it can take five years, we’ve even had some cases in the last couple years where it’s taken six years to get a homicide from arrest to trial,” Merriweather said.

Take the murder of Scott Brooks, the beloved owner of Brooks Sandwich Shop in NoDa. Police say he was gunned down while opening for the day in December 2019. In 2020, two suspects were arrested, but it’s been five years and still no trial.

Merriweather says a lack of resources is largely to blame.

“It’s not how it’s supposed to work,” he said. “Every national standard says that we should have 12.5 prosecutors doing this work for every 100,000 people we have.”

That means based on Mecklenburg County’s population of 1.2 million, we should have roughly 150 prosecutors.

Currently, Merriweather has a staff of 63 fully funded prosecutors. Some of them have a case load of 150 or more. But he could soon get 10 more prosecutors if lawmakers pass the bipartisan Senate budget.

Merriweather applauds the funding for the new positions and says if approved, the community would benefit.

“If you have more people doing this work, we get to reach the cases faster,” Merriweather said.

If that budget is approved, his office would also get five more legal assistants to help with cases.

The problem with the delayed justice is that the more time that goes on, the weaker the cases get -- prosecutors have to think about witnesses potentially dying or no longer remembering things.

Another issue is the shortage of judges needed to fill the courtrooms in Mecklenburg County. Currently, there’s no money in the budget for more of them in this county -- we’ve reported previously that the county has had to use retired judges to fill those gaps.

(VIDEO: Channel 9 speaks with DA Merriweather about stopping gun violence in CMS schools)

Channel 9 speaks with DA Merriweather about stopping gun violence in CMS schools

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