Order: Jury trials suspended ‘until at least February’
Court functions deemed essential, grand jury proceedings will continue.
A new order from Georgia Chief Justice Harold Melton last week further put off jury trials, which had been scheduled to resume in the beginning of January in the Rome Circuit.
Citing the “recent rapid escalation of COVID- 19 cases,” Melton suspended all jury trials that weren’t already in progress until February. This continues, at least for Polk County, a hiatus on trials since last March when the pandemic first hit.
Tallapoosa Judicial Circuit District Attorney Jack Browning and his office had resumed grand jury proceedings last October with protocols in place to cut down on any threat of COVID-19 transmission.
At that time a committee comprised of local judges, attorneys and law enforcement put together a tentative plan to fully reopen. That plan covers, among other things, how to comply with social distancing recommendations prior to and during a trial as well as where jurors will deliberate after a trial.
That same committee also has been working on ways to allow public access to court proceedings, which could include remote access.
“All courts are again urged to use technology when practicable and lawful to conduct remote judicial proceedings as a safer alternative to in-person proceedings,” Melton wrote in the order.
The court has continued to function throughout the jury trial suspension locally and judges have been holding hearings deemed essential — bond hearings and certain pretrial hearings to name a few.