TOPEKA, Kan. — Kansas legislators are working to give prosecutors and courts time to clear a backlog of criminal cases that have built up during the coronavirus pandemic.
The Senate voted 32-7 Wednesday night to approve a bill that would suspend until May 1, 2023, a law aimed at protecting defendants’ constitutional right to a speedy trial. The law requires cases to come to trial within five months of a defendant who has been jailed entering a plea or within six months if the defendant is free on bond.
Lawmakers say Kansas has a backlog of about 5,000 criminal cases and prosecutors worry many of them will have to be dismissed if the deadlines are not suspended.
Some legislators are nervous about suspending the deadlines, worried that defendants will languish unnecessarily in jail.
