This story is part of Longing for Justice, a series that examines how the New Orleans criminal court is plagued by homicide case delays. Read more here .

Louisiana is failing to swiftly admit criminal defendants who need mental health treatment to the state’s only hospital equipped to care for them, creating a backlog so severe it has stalled hundreds of cases across the state.

The dire backlog persists even after a class-action settlement required the hospital to accept patients within roughly two weeks.

On average, murder and manslaughter defendants statewide spent nearly seven months last year waiting for a bed at the Eastern Louisiana Mental Health System, an analysis of homicide cases by The Times-Picayune shows. New Orleans’ defendants languished even longer: seven months an

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