The court system is slowly getting back to normal operations, as the end of a second COVID year nears. In Erie County, murders are getting the priority for indictment and trial, as prosecutors wade through the backlog.
The process has turned out several indictments and guilty pleas on some days. There is plenty of opportunity, after the city broke violence records earlier this year, although deaths have eased.
Still, District Attorney John Flynn said only a few trials have been allowed.
"If you're only allowed to have one trial in the building, it has to be a homicide trial over everything else," he said. "So that is what we were doing, over a number of months. Now, over the course of the past four or five months, the court system has loosened the rules up, where we can now have two trials going on in the building."
However, another COVID surge is being felt and Flynn worries there could be another shutdown.
"Criminals now are back out on the streets because they don't care about COVID. They are not socially distancing," the DA said. "They are on the street, therefore, we need to be on the streets, fighting them, engaging, arresting them and locking them up."
