MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Shelby County Criminal Court clerk Heidi Kuhn is getting just over $170,000 from the county commission to add three additional full-time positions to her office.
Clerk Kuhn said while it is not a quick fix, it will help speed up things down at 201 Poplar.
District Attorney Steve Mulroy has said his office sees nearly 47,000 cases a year. However, last year, fewer than 50 went to trial.
In previous years, Tennessee’s largest county typically tried about 3 times that amount, about 150 per year.
“We want to make sure that these cases are going through the court system in an expeditious manner," Kuhn told ABC24. "When we only have one clerk in the courtroom, it can slow down that process.”
Court Clerks help administer court cases and maintain court records, schedules and the administrative matters of a judge’s courtroom. But with the current backlog, the chapter leader of an organization called the Greater Memphis Parents of Murdered Children (POMC), C.L. Williams, is taking it upon himself to inform and help those stuck in this system...especially if they've lost a loved one.
"As a victim, you want answers now," said Williams. "You don’t want them later; you want them now.”
Their work is often unseen in a slow system, which Williams said he knows all too well.
Williams said he was inspired by his relationship with Deborah Marion, the mother of murdered NBA star Lorenzen Wright, after watching her deal with a “justice system” that became too cumbersome for victims and their families.
“The catalyst that actually had me bring a chapter here to Memphis; when I met Deborah Marion," Williams said. "I met her way before they found the real deal about her son and how he died. She didn’t know how to maneuver through the system very well at all. The fact that her son was an NBA star, just think about a person who is less established than her; just think about what they go through.”
Another part of this story is the clerk's office handling of expungements. Clerk Kuhn said the additional positions will also help continue that work with her office completing 10,000 expungements so far.