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CNN Live At Daybreak

Alabama Imposes Moratorium on Jury Trials

Aired May 01, 2002 - 05:35   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: There is disorder in the courts in Alabama. The state has imposed a moratorium on jury trials because of a money shortage. And as CNN's Brian Cabell reports, political bickering is complicating the court crisis.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN CABELL, CNN REPORTER (voice-over): The lights are dim and the chairs are empty in jury assembly rooms throughout Alabama. There is no money to pay juries some officials say so jury trials in May, July, September have been postponed and only a shorter schedule is planned for the other two summer months.

UNKNOWN MALE: This is going to create huge problems in Alabama for the whole justice system. Our justice system, obviously, is part of law enforcement, and the taxpayers of Alabama have paid their taxes and now the law enforcement is falling flat on its face.

CABELL: The problem may be most severe in county jails. The Montgomery facility, for example, is already 33 percent over capacity. Excess inmates are forced to sleep on the floor. Now with jury trials coming to a halt, and new prisoners arriving daily, the jails may simply run out of room.

UNKNOWN MALE: And if we cannot incarcerate them, we can't bed them down, well then we're going to have to let them out.

ALABAMA SUPREME COURT CHIEF JUSTICE ROY MOORE: Well thank you for coming today.

CABELL: Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore, citing inadequate funding for the courts ordered the moratorium on jury trials. He made headlines a few years back when he defiantly posted the Ten Commandments in his local courtroom. This battle has put him back in the spotlight.

MOORE: There has been a deliberate attempt by the Governor of this state to mislead the public.

CABELL: Governor, Don Siegelman, Moore says, could end the crisis by freeing up some emergency funds. Siegelman, for his part, says the state court system needs to cut its spending as other state agencies have done. One trial will go forward this month; that of Bobby Frank Cherry, the last man charged in the 1963 Birmingham church bombing that killed four girls. Local officials there, step forward with a quarter of a million dollars to pay for jury trials. Other trials will have that same option, or they can wait for the politicians and judges in Montgomery to figure out how to put jurors back in the courtroom and pay them their fees - ten dollars a day.

Both sides agree this dispute could be resolved within a week, even a day. But for now the Alabama court system remains crippled by a combination of too few dollars and too much politics.

Brian Cabell, CNN, Montgomery, Alabama.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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