Tale of two courthouses

Lehigh County faces huge backlog of jury trials; Northampton jurors eager to serve

Despite safety measures such as plexiglass dividers installed throughout the Lehigh County Courthouse, residents remain reluctant to answer the call for jury duty while COVID-19 is in the air.

It’s one of the main reasons trials have nearly ground to a halt at the courthouse in Allentown since March, creating a backlog that one judge estimated could take up to two years to clear.

In neighboring Northampton County, jury trials were stopped when the coronavirus was first detected, but resumed in July. Since then, the courthouse in Easton has been the scene of seven criminal trials, including a four-week death penalty case and three civil jury trials.

Northampton is not facing any backlog, said Court Administrator Jermaine Greene, and has about a 95% return rate for juror summonses.

“It surprised us a little too,” Greene said. “Even with COVID, when we sent out requests for jurors, we were getting a high rate of people who wanted to come in. We said, hey, if people are going to come in and serve, why should we suspend trials?”

Court officials in both counties were unable to explain the difference in potential jurors’ attitudes about serving during the pandemic. Each followed guidelines from the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts, including creating a COVID-19 questionnaire for jurors to fill out online before coming to the courthouse, with questions designed to gauge participants’ comfort level and dismiss people most vulnerable to the disease.

All the jurors who participated in Northampton County trials were polled after the

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