CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Kanawha County Assistant Prosecutor Maryclaire Akers is calling parts of the bill that would establish an intermediate court of appeals in West Virginia a “terrible idea” and she says many colleagues agree.
Senate Bill 275 is the House Finance Committee after passage last Friday by the House Judiciary Committee.
An amendment before passage out of that committee on Friday was included that would add criminal appeals. Akers prosecutors got word on that amendment out of nowhere on Friday.
“All of the prosecutors that are on my list served, we all hate it,” she said on Monday’s 580-LIVE with Danny Jones.
“We all found out about it on Friday and no one is excited about it. We’ll do whatever we can to make sure it doesn’t happen.”
Akers spoke on her experience of working with victims of violent crimes and their families. She said too many times that families will tell her they believe the defendant has more rights than they do.
The bill would only make that worse, according to Akers.
“If you can imagine, and no one wants to, that one of your loved ones is killed. There’s a prolonged trial that is very hard on people, there is a guilty verdict, and then it has two appeals, not just one,” she said.
“There is never a sense over closure, there is always a sense of fear that something will be overturned. I think that will put us in a really bad position.”
Cases between the circuit court and Supreme Court levels would be taken up by the intermediate court.
The court, which has an estimated first-year cost of $8.5 million, would review civil lawsuits, family court appeals, workers compensation appeals, and criminal appeals.
Akers said the bill isn’t clear if local prosecutors will take up the criminal appeals. Currently, if a verdict of life without mercy comes down in a murder case, it goes directly to the Supreme Court of Appeals, by law.
Those in favor of the court is to relieve the circuit courts of cases and provide another layer of certainty for cases to be reviewed.
Akers said the circuit courts have been held up unbelievably in the amount of abused and neglected children cases. She said cases have quadrupled in Kanawha County since 1999 and believe that’s where all the money should go.
“You know if you’re going to spend $10 million on an intermediate court. Especially if this is a legislature focused on children and foster care and situations of abuse and neglect, that’s where that money needs to go,” she said.
In the bill, the intermediate court is looked at as two districts, one in the north and one in the south, with three judges on each panel.
Each judge would be voted into office by citizens to serve 10-year terms with pay listed at $130,000 a year.
Terms for the judges would be staggered and the judges wouldn’t be eligible for reappointment.