In the North Carolina criminal court system, criminal defendants are subjected to a “perfect storm” of procedural deficiencies that leave them exposed to undue delays between indictment and trial and without sufficient avenues for remedy. The current trial calendaring scheme allows prosecutors to leverage their calendaring authority to the detriment of defendants. The absence of a speedy trial statute leaves defendants without a concrete tool to challenge excessive delays. Defendants instead must litigate their speedy trial claims in court. Unfortunately for criminal defendants, the North Carolina Supreme Court’s development of a burden-shifting speedy trial analysis forces defendants to prove that prosecutors are willfully or negligently delaying a case. All of these procedural realities combine to leave defendants with scant protection against abuses of prosecutorial calendar control. Several possible statutory solutions exist, however, to combat this perfect storm and ensure criminal defendants in North Carolina are given access to justice without delay.
