Amanda Truth Project

In 2010, I wrote a blog to showcase a very real problem with the court system. The dockets keep flooding the courts in Cuyahoga County and there is simply no possible way for a judge to give a trial to every case that comes cross his/her docket each day. In Cuyahoga County, the judges hear civil and criminal dockets on any given day so that creates a greater chance for a case not to be heard simply for lack of time.

So the option to take a plea comes in. Some criminals would agree it's a nice way to avoid some charges, resolve their cases in a faster manner, some attorneys would agree it's a way to avoid a costly trial if the outcome was assured, and some prosecutors would agree it's an easier victory for the D.A. than taking the chance at trial.

In the meantime, the numbers are still disproportionate and it's a little unsettling to see the trend has not changed. I followed the dockets for three days, given that that's how I had done it previously, using 2009 docket dates. This time I used consecutive dates of July 18, 19, and 20, 2012. I'm not sure why Thursday, the 19th had so many dismissed cases (17 were dismissed, whether with or without prejudice), nor do I know if this is something that happens regularly. I will update this blog if I do find out the answers.

I charted the dockets (again: this is just the criminal docket, not including those judges who might have had a civil trial or two on any of these three dates) and here is the resulting graph: