By District Attorney Ryan Sayers
2023 Vol. 5
Now that we have covered sentencing ranges and how to calculate them over the past few weeks, I want to talk this week about the caseload in Clearfield County and start the multi-week discussion on plea negotiations.
As District Attorney, it is part of my responsibility to manage the criminal cases filed by police officers in Clearfield County and appropriately delegate the necessary resources associated with prosecuting those cases.
In Clearfield County, we have had over 1,300 criminal cases a year for the past three years, and these cases range from simple possession to simple assault to terroristic threats to aggravated indecent assault to murder and everything in-between.
In addition to myself, there are three full-time attorneys and one part-time attorney to prosecute all of these cases, and that 1,300 total does not include juvenile criminal cases, appeals and cases resolved at the magisterial district court level.
So, let’s look at the logic of the situation here in Clearfield County each year:
- There are 1,300-plus criminal cases filed;
- There are two Common Pleas Judges (President Judge Fredric Ammerman and Judge Paul Cherry);
- There are approximately 250 work days in a year;
- That means there are 500 days court days;
- DUI, simple assault, harassment trials tend to take one day;
- Sexual-related trials and drug trafficking cases take two to three days;
- Murder trials take three to five days;
- Each month at least four days are set aside for sentencing/colloquy and motions;
The court has a full civil docket relating to custody, divorce, Children & Youth Services, domestic relations and other non-criminal cases.
In other words, there are not enough days in a year to take every case to trial. This means that most cases need to be resolved in another way, and approximately 95 percent of criminal cases in the United States are resolved via guilty pleas, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
Now caseload management is not the only reason that cases resolve before a trial, but it is a factor. Next week I will continue with this topic of plea negotiations and discuss some of the other factors that lead a case to plea.
Ryan Sayers is the elected District Attorney of Clearfield County, Pennsylvania.
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