Durham District Attorney’s Office Releases 2021 Annual Report
NEWS RELEASE
February 9, 2022
For immediate release
Durham District Attorney’s Office Releases 2021 Annual Report
DURHAM, NC — The Durham County District Attorney’s Office released a new Annual Report, detailing work in 2021 — including offering new services to crime victims, enhancing coordination with law enforcement in the most serious cases, and taking steps to ensure case outcomes are fair and equitable.
The Durham DA’s Office 2021 Annual Report can be viewed and downloaded here.
From the report:
· The Durham DA’s Office Homicide & Violent Crimes Team, Special Victims Unit, and Drug & Property Crimes Team held regular roundtable meetings with corresponding law enforcement units to share information, analyze evidence, and build stronger cases. Efforts by the DA’s Office to strengthen homicide prosecutions contributed to more convictions in 2021 than 2020 and 2018, and a decline in dismissals each year since 2019.
· For the first time, the DA’s Office secured county funding to pay courthouse parking fees for crime victims, civilian witnesses and their families attending court or meeting with staff regarding pending cases.
· Staff created a lending closet with professional clothes crime victims and witnesses can wear in court to ensure they feel comfortable and are viewed with the respect they deserve.
· The DA’s Office successfully petitioned the court to expunge more than 3,000 low-level felony and misdemeanor charges from the records of people who were teenagers at the time of their offenses but prosecuted as adults before North Carolina stopped this practice in 2019.
· The DA’s Office joined a Duke University study of plea arrangements in prosecutor’s offices, providing unprecedented transparency into the plea process.
· The DA’s Office secured convictions in six cold case sexual assaults as part of a multi-agency initiative to review and bring closure to cases with previously untested sexual assault evidence kits.
· Prosecutors began using mediation to reach fair resolutions in homicide cases that incorporated the wishes of victims’ families in ways the traditional court process does not.
“In 2021, the Durham County District Attorney’s Office continued taking a progressive approach to prosecution in line with both justice and safety,” said Durham District Attorney Satana Deberry. “The efforts outlined in this report have tangible impacts: stronger cases in the most serious crimes; more people with access to job opportunities; fewer children pulled into a cycle of court involvement for behavior at school; more treatment opportunities for people dealing with substance use and mental illness; fewer people carrying the weight of court sanctions they would not receive under today’s laws; and more services for victims of crime.”
Durham DA’s Office staff have continued to resolve cases through the COVID-19 pandemic. Jury trials resumed in January 2021, and while the pandemic limited the number of trials that could be held, there were no COVID-related disruptions to these proceedings in 2021. DA’s Office staff tried and secured convictions in a range of cases, including domestic violence, rape, and first-degree murder.
With courts continuing to operate at reduced capacity, the DA’s Office has worked to prioritize cases involving victims and violence and to keep pending cases from building up. Durham had no pandemic backlog in the busiest courtrooms; Durham’s pending District Court criminal and infraction caseload was lower in August 2021 than in August 2019, while the state overall saw an increase. The pending felony caseload in Superior Court increased similarly to the state overall.
While focusing on serious offenses, the DA’s Office has expanded diversion opportunities and reduced unnecessary prosecutions of nonviolent cases. A 2021 review of 35 jurisdictions, including Durham, found that prosecutorial reforms — such as reducing prosecution of nonviolent misdemeanors, diverting people dealing with mental illness and substance use for treatment, and reducing reliance on cash bail — did not affect local crime rates.
“Research has confirmed that efforts by the Durham DA’s Office to avoid unnecessary prosecutions and pretrial incarceration are in line with public safety,” Deberry said. “In addition, these practices saved limited court resources and reduced damaging consequences of court involvement for residents who pose no safety risk.”
DA Deberry will present the 2021 Annual Report virtually on Wednesday, February 16, at 6 p.m. Members of the public can view the presentation and submit questions on the Durham DA’s Office Facebook page (facebook.com/DurhamDA).
