As COVID-19 cases spike, federal courts across the United States are taking a step back by suspending jury trials or grand jury proceedings, and slowing other courthouse activities.
Many U.S. district courts are still holding jury trials, but 25 district courts that have issued recent orders to curb the practice are saying that new diagnoses and hospitalizations have made it an unacceptable risk to convene juries, according to a statement by the U.S. Courts. Conditions may worsen this winter, the statement said.
For example, courts in the Western District of Texas, the Eastern District of Virginia, Western District of Pennsylvania and the Northern District of New York have decided not to hold jury trials for now. Other recent orders came from courts in 17 other states, many of them concentrated in the cold-weather states in the North, Midwest and Plains regions.
Judges are finding that jurors are reluctant to hear cases.
"It creates the possibility that our juries will not reflect a fair cross section of the Eastern District," said a Nov. 6 order by U.S. District Chief Judge D.P. Marshall Jr. of the Eastern District of Arkansas.
State court systems are also reacting to the rise in coronavirus infections by canceling in-person jury trials. It's already happened in Connecticut, Delaware, New Jersey, New York and Texas, according to a law.com article.