The wheels of justice turn slowly but grind exceedingly fine.
It’s a commonplace expression that’s certainly true in much of our legal system, where lawsuits and prosecutions can take years to resolve and convicted killers often sit for decades on death row while appeals languish in court.
For local election challenges, though, we’d all be well-served if the courts could find a way to spin the wheels a bit faster.
Allegations of voter fraud, contested elections and other challenges here in Leflore County seem to move about as quickly as dirt.
In the recently resolved case of Greenwood Ward 5 Councilwoman Dot Glenn, it took a full 16 months — or a third of a term in office — for the Mississippi Supreme Court finally to confirm what a judicial tribunal easily determined back in July 2013: that Glenn didn’t live in the ward that elected her.
Glenn’s case is hardly the only local example. Sheriel Perkins’ challenge of Greenwood Mayor Carolyn McAdams’ election in June 2013 has still yet to be heard. Lawyers likely won’t begin making arguments in that case until early next year.
Even judges themselves don’t seem to get expeditious treatment from the courts. Shortly after election day in November 2010, Fred Clark seemed hot to challenge Kevin Adams’ victory in the race for Leflore County Court judge.
After an initial burst of activity, though, the suit gathered mothballs for 3½ years on a circuit court judge’s desk before being rendered moot by Adams’ recent re-election last week — this time unopposed — to the county court bench.
Granted, Clark and his attorney, Solomon Osborne, didn’t seem to make much of an effort to press their challenge forward in the court system. Still, allowing the case to languish instead of resolving it one way or another allowed the entire mess to hang over Adams’ head for his entire term.
The creaky, lethargic resolution of these election cases does a disservice to the candidates and the voters alike. The old legal maxim, justice delayed is justice denied, could hardly be more true than when it comes to upholding or overturning elections.
When late last month the Supreme Court confirmed the tribunal’s June 2013 ruling that Glenn wasn’t a proper candidate for the City Council, it also confirmed that the residents of Ward 5 had been denied proper political representation for those 16 months.
Although due process needs to be respected, although judges’ calendars are frequently full and the various avenues for appeal seemingly inexhaustible, our courts must find a way to do a better job quickly hearing and ruling on election cases.
Aside from a last-minute appeal from a death row prisoner, it’s hard to imagine what cases might be more important in a democracy than determining if our politicians are legally holding office.
Allowing challenges to languish and questions about an official’s legitimacy to fester, for whatever reason, also corrodes the integrity of the government offices themselves.
As citizens, we deserve better.
• Contact Bryn Stole at 581-7235 or bstole@gwcommonwealth.com.
