Eastern District jury trials postponed

LR federal courthouse open, but judges to meet on phone if possible

All criminal jury trials and grand jury meetings scheduled in the Eastern District of Arkansas will be postponed until after April 30, the court announced in a second order related to the covid-19 pandemic.

Issued Wednesday by Chief U.S. District Judge D. Price Marshall, the order follows one issued March 13 that canceled all civil jury trials between Wednesday and April 30.

While the orders mean that no civil or criminal jury trials will be going on in the federal courthouse in downtown Little Rock until the end of April, the courthouse remains open. Hearings, non-jury trials and other proceedings, such as pleas and arraignments, plea changes and sentencings, will go forward as usual, Marshall said, unless attorneys seek a hearing by videoconference.

Marshall’s order noted the increasing numbers of presumptively positive coronavirus cases in Arkansas, “many of those in counties in the Eastern District.”

He added, “That number has been increasing; and given the incubation period and the existence of asymptomatic cases, many more people in this District may be contagious and not know it. Slowing the transmission of the virus is essential. Public health officials have noted that social distancing is crucial to slowing transmission. The CDC recommends avoiding gatherings of more

than 50 people for the next eight weeks. And the President has suggested limiting groups to ten in the coming days. The need for a speedy and public jury trial in criminal cases must therefore be balanced against the risk associated with the social contact inherent in those trials.”

Both administrative orders are available on the court’s website: are.uscourts.gov.

In the latest order, Marshall noted that while the American concept of a jury trial contemplates a jury drawn from a cross-section of the community, drawing

together diverse members of the community now “goes against the best guidance of public health officials.”

“Proceeding with criminal jury trials could put defendants, jurors, observers, and court personnel at risk; and there is no way to ensure that a jury’s important work would not be affected by health concerns,” he said.

He noted that “the ends of justice served by continuing all criminal jury trials and grand jury proceedings outweigh both the public’s interest and each defendant’s interest in a speedy trial or speedy indictment. The period of delay caused by these continuances … are therefore excluded under the Speedy

Trial Act.”

The order says that any criminal defendants seeking an exception to the order may do so “for just cause,” through filing a motion that will be considered by both the presiding district judge and him, as chief judge.

Marshall said that while all judges will continue holding hearings, conferences and bench trials in both civil and criminal cases, “when practicable, they will do so by telephone or video conference.”

He said each judge will continue to manage his or her docket and decide whether to hold an in-person criminal hearing, considering the need for the defendant’s presence in the courtroom.