DC Courts Face Crisis Waiting For Judicial Appointments, Says Chief Judge and Attorneys

By Jeff Levine - January 23, 2025
Court | Daily Stories | Featured | Homicides | Suspects | Victims |

As the new Trump administration takes shape, the District continues to wait anxiously for Congressional action to fill the longstanding void of Superior Court judges. 

Meanwhile, in a rare moment of agreement, DC judges, prosecutors and defense lawyers are warning the situation has reached crisis proportions in terms of the effective administration of justice.

“If you are incarcerated and charged with a ‘felony one’ offense, you could be waiting years,” said Todd Baldwin, head of the Superior Court Trial Lawyers Association which handles most indigent client cases that come before the court. 

In a November letter to outgoing Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D) last year, Milton Lee, the new chief judge of the DC Superior Court, called for urgent action to fill current and upcoming vacancies on the bench. 

Lee, along with his counterpart on the DC Court of Appeals, Chief Judge Anna Blackburne-Rigsby, noted that even though a full complement of judges on the Superior Court is 62, there are nine vacancies, two pending retirements and two on medical leave.  

One slot has been in limbo since 2011.  DC Judges have to be appointed by the president and confirmed by the U.S. Senate.

“T]he historically high number of vacancies puts an unsustainable strain on caseloads, disposition times, parties, and the public servants at the heart of the Courts,” wrote Judge Lee. 

Judge Lee declined to comment about the impact of the judicial shortfall on court operations as a whole.

While his duties are largely administrative, a post on the official DC Bar website says because of the judicial crisis Judge Lee will continue to hear cases. 

Underscoring the problem, Judge Lee was assigned a Jan. 15 hearing on the widely publicized Cydrisse Alvin case.  She was convicted in 2013 of stabbing her next door neighbor to death. The matter has dragged on more than a decade through appeals after she was sentenced to 35 years for the crime.

Again in 2024, the DC Superior Court’s urgent calls for more judges went largely unanswered. Ten nominees up for federal approval were left languishing and disappointed DC officials are trying to figure out how to deal with the 

aftermath. 

One criminal defense lawyer said, “Until someone is convinced to address the shortage, it’s going to be a squeeze.” The attorney, who spoke to D.C. Witness on the condition of anonymity, says court delays are “as bad as he’s seen” in more than forty years in practice and “it’s about to get much worse.”

Part of the problem, according to the attorney, is that in a push for more prosecutions many more cases are being “papered,” meaning set for trial.  

Meanwhile, D.C. Witness data shows that in 2023 and 2024 most homicide and non-fatal shooting cases that started on Jan.1 or later were unresolved by year’s end.

For 2024:

   – NFS: 45 out of 124 cases received a disposition within 1 year (39.5%)

   – Homicide: 9 out of 47 cases received a disposition within 1 year(19.1%)

For 2023:

   – NFS:  12 out of 94 cases received a disposition within 1 year (12.8%)

   – Homicide: 4 out of 102 cases received a disposition within 1 year(3.9%)

Thousands of cases postponed during the pandemic created a significant judicial backlog resulting in the low rate of arraignment to final disposition cases in 2023.  Many other factors besides the availability of trial judges affect adjudication and each case is different.  Still, the backlog amounting to some 4,000 cases bears witness to what many are calling a crisis on the bench, 

“We are seeing the greatest harm in the courtrooms that hear homicide cases where trial dates are being set in late 2025 and throughout 2026, in part because of judicial vacancies,” said the US Attorney’s Office in a statement to D.C. Witness. 

While many may think of the modern DC Superior Court created in 1970 as strictly a venue for criminal proceedings, its responsibilities extend far beyond the courtroom doors into community-wide issues like juvenile delinquency and landlord-tenant disputes. 

“It has real impact on both the pace of decision making and resolution of matters that have high significance to the people of the District of Columbia,” said Misty C.Thomas Zaleski, executive director of the Center for Court Excellence, which monitors the court and advocates for a fairer criminal justice system. 

Nonetheless, the Senate adjourned in December without a vote on DC’s remaining judicial candidates, meaning the process will have to start all over again when Congress reconvenes. 

“It is really at the Senate level, either in committee or deeply at the Senate floor, where our problems lie,” says Thomas Zaleski. 

Whatever the reasons for the impasse, frustration at the Superior Court is palpable. 

“We have not been this close to really and truly addressing the long-standing judicial vacancy crisis that has plagued the DC Courts for nearly a decade, until now – and to be this close – and not get this done – would be a real travesty,” said DC Superior Court spokesman Doug Buchanan in a statement to D.C. Witness.  

Except for the most serious crimes, all other cases must come to trial within 100 days of arrest.  Still, there’s no deadline on when they will finish and justice delayed could ultimately amount to justice denied.