NORFOLK, Va. — Local activist Bilal Muhammad knows what it's like navigating the court system in Virginia. His son Ali Muhammad was shot and killed in 2023.
"It's a pain that don't go away," Bilal Muhammad said as he showed News 3 pictures of his son. "Knowing that I heard my son's last words by being on the phone with him. I have to move forward. It's not an easy task, but I understand that faith, faith can see me through it and see our family through it."
He said what's important is continuing to show up for each other. With faith, the family has waited more than a year to see the man accused of killing Ali stand trial. That's now scheduled for March.
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"We wonder why this had to be put off and put off and we have everything in place," said Bilal Muhammad. "So, we need to really tie our knots a little tighter, because if we don't, a loose knot can slip away and we don't want to blow this case."
The family is just one of many patiently hoping for "justice" in a criminal case in Virginia. "Justice" might not always be a given though. Those fighting for change in the criminal legal system worry a deficit of more than $240 million is having an impact on public safety.
"The basic idea that we have about how the criminal systems works is that guilty people should be convicted and innocent people should be found not guilty. The way the system stands right now there are not enough lawyers on either side to give us assurance that that is always happening," said Norfolk's Commonwealth's Attorney Ramin Fatehi.
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Fatehi said the issue is expansive — fueled by increased caseloads, decreased law school enrollment, and insufficient funding and resources. He said there's a hiring and funding crisis for both prosecutors and defense lawyers.
He explained there were more than 400,000 warrants for misdemeanors last year in Virginia with zero dollars in state support for prosecutors to be involved in them.
"None for DUIs, none for domestic assaults," said Fatehi. He also said we're seeing decreasing numbers of court-appointed counsel.
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"Ten years ago in Norfolk, there were over 60 lawyers willing to take appointments for people who couldn't afford lawyers," said Fatehi. "That list now has 23 on it. And I'm doing better in Norfolk than a lot of other places especially in South Side and Southwest Virginia."
He said those issues have a ripple effect.
"Justice delayed, you lose witnesses for victims. Justice delayed, if you're a defendant, you sit in jail and rot, presumed innocent with no lawyer to help you," explained Fatehi.
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Virginia's Victim's Fund is another area he said doesn't work as well as it could, since it only reimburses victims in qualifying violent crime cases.
"Not in embezzlements, not in larcenies," Fatehi clarified.
Fatehi is one of the bipartisan group of Commonwealth's Attorney who presented the Virginia Access to Justice Act to the Senate Courts of Justice Committee last Wednesday.
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"The Access to Justice Act is one of the most significant pieces of legislation on criminal law in the last 30 years," said Fatehi. "This bill would give the defendant the constitutional protections that the 6th Amendment entitles him to. It gives the victim the opportunity to have a prosecutor there to protect them and hear them and to make a decision. It gives prosecutors the ability to focus on these cases, to separate out the cases that need to be diverted and dismissed and focus on the cases that need to send people to jail and to lessen the footprint of the criminalization of mental illness and homelessness and substance abuse."
He said it aims to put public defenders in every city and county in Virginia, up the court-appointed reimbursement rate and expand the Victim's Fund.
After the Senate Courts of Justice Committee heard the bill they moved it before the Senate Finance Committee.
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"What we saw in Richmond on Wednesday was absolutely historic," said Fatehi. "The Senate Courts of Justice Committee voted for the principle that we need to fully fund our justice system. That's what they voted for. And not in the past 40 plus years have we seen that sort of support, bipartisan support, for the idea that we can't be doing justice on the cheap anymore."
