The Mississippi court system is essentially on hold right now, meaning there are no hearings or pleas.
“The last two grand juries have been canceled and the last two terms of court have been canceled. The Supreme Court has given us pretty good guidelines as far as how we should proceed. They have said there can be no gathering of juries, sitting or grand juries. So we’re on hold to see how this plays out,” said Steven Kilgore, who is the district attorney of the 8th Circuit Court District of Neshoba, Newton, Leake and Scott counties.
Kilgore said ongoing cases that are ready to be presented to the grand jury or are under indictment are also on hold. He said the earliest court could resume is mid-to-late May.
“As of now it’s hard to tell how the coronavirus is going to impact the court system in the long run. In the short run, it’s putting us way behind. All these cases we have open and there are stacks and stacks of them on my desk, they’re all just on hold until we get a better idea of when they can move forward” said Kilgore.
However, Kilgore said the setbacks will not keep the court system from doing its job when the time comes.
“We’re going to have to make up all these cases in the next couple of terms. We’re going to have crowded dockets. We are going to have a hard time catching up, but we will. I imagine by this time next year we will have caught up and it will be back to business as normal,” said Kilgore.
