Death penalty trial restarts after COVID-19 concern

Jury selection in a death penalty trial in South Georgia will resume today after it was halted last week when a defense lawyer thought he may have contracted COVID-19.

On Thursday, capital defender Adam Levin, after feeling symptoms of the virus, took an at-home test that turned up positive before Levin left for court. He then took a more reliable laboratory test and found out on Monday the results were negative, co-counsel Frank Hogue said.

The defendant, Donnie Rowe, is one of two men charged with killing two guards during an escape from a prison bus in Putnam County in 2017. He and co-defendant Ricky Dubose, who will be tried separately, were arrested in Tennessee three days after their escape.

Jury selection for Rowe’s death penalty trial is being conducted in Grady County because of the extraordinary publicity the case received in Putnam. Once a jury is seated, jurors will be transported to a hotel in Eatonton and hear the case at the Putnam County courthouse.

Last week, Superior Court Judge Brenda Trammell, who is presiding over the case, said jury selection would resume today if Levin tested negative. If he had tested positive, jury selection was to resume Sept. 27.

Because the trial is expected to take at least three weeks, a Sept. 27 resumption of jury selection could have impacted the Ahmaud Arbery trial, scheduled for Oct. 18 in Brunswick. That is because Hogue represents Greg Mcmichael, one of the three men charged with murder in the fatal shooting of Arbery on Feb. 23, 2020.