As courts across the country begin to cautiously resume in-person hearings through the COVID-19 pandemic, judges are confronting a vexing challenge: how to safely convene jury trials at a time when health officials continue to caution against public gatherings. With no real federal guidance or uniform
As courts across the country begin to cautiously resume in-person hearings through the COVID-19 pandemic, judges are confronting a vexing challenge: how to safely convene jury trials at a time when health officials continue to caution against public gatherings.
One current federal judge who spoke to ABC News on the condition of anonymity in order to be candid described the dilemma as a “terrible burden,” in judges not being able to guarantee the safety of those they're asking to carry out their civic duty. In California, the local court in Monterey County, which has seen less than 700 COVID-19 infections and 10 deaths as of Monday, began resuming jury trials last week with safeguards that included spacing out jurors throughout court rooms rather than seating people in the typical jury box.
“The problem with jury trials is that juries are always involuntary participants,” former Northern District of Texas district judge Joe Kendall said. “So we already know that statistically, reports that this virus has adversely affected the African-American community, those folks might be a lot more afraid. People over 65 are more at risk.”
In McIntosh’s Ohio courtroom he has overseen a complete structural transformation -- with plexiglass partitions erected between each individual juror seat in the jury box, in addition to plexiglass in front of the witness stand, the bailiff’s station and even his own judge’s bench. Typically after receiving a summons in the mail from their local court, a select number of people from a particular jurisdiction convene in a court room to answer questions that may be related to a case as they are considered to be chosen for the jury.
McIntosh noted that he recently heard from an attorney affiliated with the National Center for State Courts who had participated in such a virtual voir dire and “liked it.” Preserving the dynamic nature of such trials, with public presentations and numerous private conferences conducted between the judges, witnesses, jurors, attorneys and their defendants is seen as essential in order to protect the rights of the criminally accused.
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