District Attorney Mike Kagay comments on progress made this legislative session

TOPEKA (KSNT)- Shawnee County District Attorney Mike Kagay appeared on the KSNT 27 News Morning show to share some new information coming from the legislature.

When the session first began, Kagay spoke with KSNT 27 News to discuss the significant backlog of cases the courts are facing following the shut-down of the pandemic. For this reason, he explained the law Kansas had in place detailing the timeframe for a speedy trial was suspended temporarily to give workers the chance to get up to speed.

Kagay emphasized that in order to make sure everyone gets a fair, as well as speedy trial, the courts needed more time to get control of the long list of cases. Therefore, he was advocating in the legislature for the suspension of a Kansas law to be extended until they could do so.

Now, a little more than a month later, he said he has good news to report.

"We are very pleased that we were able to work with the legislature and get a favorable outcome on that piece of law," Kagay said.

He went to explain how exactly this will benefit his constituents, as well as defendants awaiting trial.

"It's going to extend the speedy trial waiver that we had in place during COVID until early next year," Kagay said. "That will give prosecutors around the state the time we need, to continue working with defense, and working through that back log of high-level, serious cases."

In addition to speaking on the speedy-trial extension, Kagay also spoke touched on some recent crime that has been happening in Topeka. He also provided condolences and sentiments to the families in Nashville follwing the recent shooting.

For more information, you can watch the full interview above.