The pandemic-related backlog of cases ready for jury trial in Orleans Criminal District could be worse than what they faced after Katrina, according to Rafeal Goyeneche, president of the New Orleans Metropolitan Crime Commission.
On Wednesday Orleans Criminal District Judge Camille Buras pushed back the trial date on the high-profile case of Cardell Hayes. He won a new trial this year when his conviction in the 2016 shooting death of New Orleans Saints player Will Smith was tossed because of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling barring non-unanimous jury verdicts. When giving a new trial date of Oct. 18 on the case initially set for a July trial date, Buras noted the backlog of criminal homicide cases. There are about 20 of them ready for trial in her section, alone, that have been delayed because of the pandemic. Hers is just one of twelve sections of criminal court in Orleans Parish.
Jury trials resume July 6, about 16 months after the pandemic halted them.
