Inside the 'dysfunctional' New Orleans court plagued by murder case delays: 'Like the Wild West'

The murder case of Widner DeGruy was already three years old when his defense attorney asked to reschedule a hearing so he could escort his wife to a Mardi Gras ball.

The judge granted the request.

That delay in 2018 was one of many that stalled the case over 10 years, as court records show the judge agreed to attorneys’ requests to postpone hearings and trials for a dentist appointment, an opportunity to speak at a conference and to prioritize other cases.

DeGruy’s still unresolved case stretches across a decade in which homicide prosecutions in New Orleans took longer to close than almost anywhere else in the country, an analysis by The Times-Picayune found. The system’s slow pace leaves victims’ families and defendants waiting for justice, trapped in a debilitating limbo, and s