Former Crown prosecutor has a solution to prevent court delays: double-booking courtrooms

After a man accused of murder was recently freed of charges due to court delays, a former Crown prosecutor says Newfoundland and Labrador Supreme Court needs to change how it operates.

Mike Murray, who retired six months ago after athree-decade careeras a provincial Crown prosecutor,says he doesn't think it's an issue of resources for the Justice Department but one of how guidelines for trying cases within a reasonable time are handled.

"The major factor here is that the Supreme Court has a real lackadaisical attitude towards Jordan," said Murray, who primarily worked Supreme Court cases.

R. v. Jordan is an analytical framework introduced by the Supreme Court of Canada for determining whether an accused was tried within a reasonable time.

A delay of more than 30 months for a Supreme Court case is considered unreasonable. Before the introduction of Jordan in 2016, delays were analyzed case by case.

On Thursday in Supreme Court in St. John's, Justice Vikas Khaladkar ruled the second-degree murder charge against Kurt Churchill accused in a 2020 homicide in St. John's had taken too long to come to trial, so charges were stayed. Churchill was arrested in June 2021, with the 30 months expiring in December 2023.

Murray said delays happen often in court. There are defence delays, which usually occur when an accused fires their lawyers on the day of their trial, Murray said. In that case, a new trial date has to be set.

"You don't get to delay your own trial and then ask to have charges thrown out for the delay, so defence delay comes off the top," Murray said.

Then there are Crown and institutional delays.

"[Say] you're supposed to have a sexual assault trial starting tomorrow and the victim gets hit by a car and the trial has to be postponed. That's Crown delay," Murray said. "Institutional delay would be, let's say the courthouse only has one jury room and there's already a jury sitting."

And there areexceptional circumstances.

"During COVID, when the courts were shut down and no trials were taking place, that was considered to be an exceptional circumstance many times," he said.

The 30-month deadline comes into effect once information is sworn by police. It is not 30 months from the date the alleged crime took place.

Murray said murders are complicated cases. Stakes are high, and there are a lot of legal arguments and procedures.

In Churchill's case, problems began when defence counsel received a copy of Churchill's in-camera hearing, which was meant to be off limits, from a Supreme Court administrative employee.

"This is where it all went off the rails," Murray said. "Between the jigs and reels, the next date they got was November, December of 2024, which is 14 months after the initial trial date and a full year after the Jordan deadline was blown past."

While mistakes happen, Murray said, the delays could have been avoided if the Supreme Court of St. John's took its cues from provincial court in Atlantic Place.

"In provincial court, when Jordan came out, the provincial court started double-booking trials," he said. "Let's say there's six courtrooms in provincial court operating every day. They'll set 10 trials on the assumption that four of them won't go ahead."

While cases get bumped occasionally due to double-booking, Murray said, many Supreme Court cases are civil matters that get resolved before trial, often leaving courtrooms empty because they don't double-book.

"If you go over to Supreme Court four days out of five, you know, it's crickets over there. There's hardly anything happening. Most of the courtrooms are empty," he said.

Double-booking, he said, could help prevent cases from getting tossed due to trial delays.

"It's because of that refusal to double-book or take on other administrative reforms that this is happening," Murray said.

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