Tuscaloosa County District Attorney’s Cash Crisis Slows Down Speed of Justice

A longstanding and ongoing funding crisis continues to significantly slow down the speed of justice in Tuscaloosa County, District Attorney Hays Webb told local leaders on Monday.

The status quo has Webb's office of criminal prosecutors - the government lawyers who represent the state of Alabama in cases against suspects accused of committing felonies - understaffed, overworked, and overwhelmed.

Unless something changes, felony cases will continue to take years to work their way through the court system to a trial or a guilty plea agreement. That leaves suspects either out on bond for long periods or else sitting in the Tuscaloosa County Jail waiting for a day in court which often comes multiple years after an arrest.

Get our free mobile app

Webb laid out the problems and held no punches during a Monday afternoon presentation to the Chamber of Commerce of West Alabama's Public Affairs Committee.

Over half an hour or so, Webb explained first the mission of the DA's office and the scope of their work. He said they prosecute thousands of misdemeanors and traffic cases annually, and over 3,000 additional annual felonies in both District and Circuit courts. The DA's office also works hundreds of yearly juvenile cases, enforces child support collection, restitution recovery and more.

He broke down the prosecution of felonies so the Council could visualize how many times his office has to "touch the ball" between a suspect's arrest and a guilty one ending up in prison.

After the arrest, there's

• an initial appearance
• bond hearings and recommendations
• a preliminary hearing
• the submission of discovery evidence to defense attorneys
• the creation of a pretrial diversion program for those who qualify
• a grand jury appearance, where suspects are indicted or their cases end
• an arraignment
• consideration of youthful offender status where applicable
• pretrial dockets and hearings to discuss any motions made in the case
• preparation for trial
• jury trial or the crafting and acceptance of a guilty plea deal
• a sentencing recommendation, then a sentencing hearing
• and appearing at any future probation or parole hearings

Every single one of those steps, except the arraignment and arrest, requires work from the DA's office, and that's for every felony case. Now, picture the scale - each one of his five prosecutors is facing a current backlog of between 500 and 1200 felony cases awaiting trial or a plea deal, and dozens of new felonies are committed each week.

"Instead of a bare minimum of eight lawyers trying to handle those, we have five," Webb said Monday.

And that's not for lack of hard work - instead of the once-average five or six weeks of jury trials every year, Webb said his prosecutors average 22 weeks of jury trials annually.

"The most stressful thing you can do is be getting ready for a trial, okay?" Webb told local leaders. "And right now it's two weeks every month, 11 months of the year."

So Webb needs to hire more prosecutors, but told the Public Affairs Committee that his funding in 2025 doesn't even cover the cost of his already too-small staff.

Webb said his office has just under $3.5 million to work with in 2025, and nearly half - $1.4 million - is self-generated through recouping court costs from defendants.

The state of Alabama's Office of Prosecution Services, who is actually tasked with funding the office, gave the Tuscaloosa County DA $1,086,597 this year, and the rest comes from three local governments.

The Tuscaloosa County commission gave Webb's office $800,000 this year, the city of Tuscaloosa provided $100,000, and Northport gave $65,000. None of these governments are obligated to give this funding, but they vote to do so annually when they adopt their budgets.

Even all that funding still leaves a $165,888 hole in his office's $3.6 million budget this year, and Webb said just getting to budget will still leave his office without the staff it needs to function effectively.

The result is, as the backlogs grow or are merely kept at bay, the speed of justice is slowed dramatically.

Think of Luther Bernard Watkins, Jr., still being held without bond and awaiting jury trial after he allegedly killed a Tuscaloosa Police Office in September 2019 - almost six years ago. That's an extreme case with unique aggravators that have slowed it down, but hundreds of other suspects accused of violent crimes are also stalled out, waiting for the system to eventually catch up and bring their case to trial.

"Their case is hanging out in circuit court for how long? A year? Years?" Webb said. "Where are those defendants? In the jail, costing money to house those people, or they're on the streets, either reoffending or having difficulty getting jobs because of the stigma of having this charge hang over their head."

Without directly accusing the city of Tuscaloosa of underfunding his office, Webb shared data showing that the vast majority of the felony cases, the violent crimes and the homicides the DA prosecutes come from inside city limits.

One chart showed that over 60 percent of the violent crimes committed in 2024 happened in Tuscaloosa, less than 10 percent in Northport and about 30 percent elsewhere in the county.

Another chart showing those local funding sources - $100,000 from Tuscaloosa, $65,000 from Northport and $800,000 from the county - made a clear implication.

City Councilor Norman Crow and just-elected representative Joe Eatmon were at the meeting Monday and didn't dispute that the city could do more for the DA's office, but also pointed out the council funds a huge number of local agencies.

"I don't say this to argue with you, but I would like to say one thing," Crow said. "The city of Tuscaloosa funds agencies to the tune of $14 million a year and those are agencies not just enjoyed by our citizens. I think we need to do more for the DA's office and I'm not arguing that, but we fund a lot of stuff in this community."

In a perfect world, Webb said each Circuit Court judge would have three separate prosecutors working cases there, for a total of 12 - right now, there are five on staff. Webb said he'd be happy with six, and if the city of Tuscaloosa contributes at least $250,000 to the DA's office, it would be a good place to stop to stave off potential crises.

Whether new funding comes from the city, the county, the state of Alabama, Webb said it must come from somewhere to improve the status quo, and he hopes the Chamber and community can spark an earnest discussion about solving this problem.

"The point is, if y'all see it and everybody cares to say, 'Hey, let's be invested in it together,' our local representatives are not just hearing it from me," Webb said.

For more coverage of news in west Alabama, stay connected to the Tuscaloosa Thread.