The City is going to attempt — again — to have jury trials. This time the target date is July 13th.
I’m dumbfounded. The courts in the 22nd Judicial Circuit are not even having in-person hearings yet so as to avoid COVID transmission. In other words, I cannot go in-person to a division for a status conference involving just three persons: me, the prosecutor, and a judge. That’s too risky. We do all those by video conference. But, for some unknown reasons, instead of gradually increasing the levels and types of in-person contacts permitted in the courts, and then seeing how things progress, there is this insipid push to jump to the sort of proceedings that involve the greatest risk of COVID transmission.
What is this obsession with having jury trials? I agree that we need to get back to them. But, there are many steps along the way that we need to take first.
Interestingly, I keep hearing rumors of more COVID cases in the court house. And yet, this doesn’t seem to be having an effect on our opening phase. It makes me wonder if the courts are doing some creative manipulations of the numbers like Governor Parson.
So, what’s the plan for jury selection? Good question. St. Charles, a jurisdiction that only gives lip service to what it seems to believe is a fake COVID crises, is trying to have a jury trial next week (so what if numerous jail inmates currently have the virus?) and has made plans on using the Family Arena for jury selection to allow for social distancing. The City has no such plans. They are just going to try to space people out in the court room, in the elevators, etc. In my experience, the City really never gives much thought to planning things and lives by the motto “it’s a work around.”
When things never change, it does seems like deja vu.