Just two years ago, “new” defined Cobb County’s criminal justice system, from the district attorney and the sheriff to judges of the State and Superior courts.
There was also COVID-19 and its accompanying judicial state of emergency to contend with, not to mention a backlog of nearly 4,000 cases in the Cobb DA’s office.
Gregory Poole, 62, is the new chief judge of the Cobb Superior Court. He said that two years on, he and his 10 fellow judges are in a good position to handle the cases that come their way.
Addressing the backlog
Earlier this month, Georgia Chief Justice Michael Boggs told state lawmakers that a major backlog of cases was still plaguing the state’s judicial system.
“The numbers in certain parts of Georgia are truly astounding,” Boggs, who became chief justice last July, said during his first State of the Judiciary address to a joint session of the Georgia House and Senate. “The resolution will not be easy.”
While the problem is statewide, Poole said Cobb Superior Court is managing its backlog well and recovering nicely from the COVID slowdown.
“During the height of COVID, the thing that slowed us down the most was the inability to hold a jury trial,” Poole said.
That inability stemmed primarily from challenges with space: It was not possible to have dozens, if not a couple hundred potential jurors in one room due to social distancing rules.
When Poole and his colleagues got jury trials back up and running, they had to use a whole courtroom to spread out jurors, lawyers, the bailiff and defendant, and in another courtroom, TVs were used to broadcast the trial for family members.
Gradually, the Superior Court went from using a single courtroom across three floors to one on each floor, and Poole said that for months now, operations have been back to business as usual.
In 2022, the court held 60 jury trials,…
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