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Law360 (August 31, 2020, 8:06 PM EDT ) Georgia will likely resume jury trials in October once courts develop and submit plans to the state for in-person proceedings amid the continuing coronavirus pandemic, Georgia Supreme Court Chief Justice Harold D. Melton said Monday.
Justice Melton chaired an emergency meeting of the Georgia Judicial Council to update members about his next statewide judicial emergency order in response to the pandemic, which will replace the current order expiring Sept. 10. Melton said he and the state's other judges are feeling pressure to lift the ban on jury proceedings that has been in place since March to help curb the spread of COVID-19.
"We're pressed to go green on grand juries, and we're pressed to go green on jury trials," Justice Melton said during the virtual meeting. "I would like to be able to open up jury trials in October."
The Georgia Court of Appeals transferred on Friday to the Georgia Supreme Court five appeals from criminal defendants claiming the halt on jury trials in Justice Melton's latest order violated their constitutional rights to due process and a speedy trial.
Justice Melton said his next order will call for courts to create and submit to the state's Administrative Office of the Courts a plan at the county level for safely conducting in-person jury trials during the pandemic. He said the order will also open up grand jury proceedings on a discretionary basis, and a council report on this will be circulated to members shortly.
The judge paused the meeting to recognize two judges and a deputy clerk who died as a result of the coronavirus in Georgia. The state's relatively high number of confirmed coronavirus cases and deaths caused him at the start of August to roll back plans to resume jury proceedings earlier.
Georgia Supreme Court Presiding Justice David E. Nahmias, the council's vice-chair, said it will take a few weeks from the lifting of jury restrictions until jurors are actually sitting in courtrooms. Grand jury proceedings are likely to resume in mid-October at the earliest, and jury trials in November, he said.
Statutory demands for a speedy trial will remain on hold in Georgia, Justice Melton said Monday, so judges won't be "overwhelmed by the floodgates as they come open there."
Remote grand jury proceedings require some help from the governor's office to overcome statutory provisions for oath-taking and other in-person requirements, Justice Melton said. He asked if any judges were willing to experiment with technology to lead the way in this area, and had immediate offers from Flint Judicial Circuit Chief Judge Brian Amaro, Atlanta Judicial Circuit Chief Judge Christopher S. Brasher and Tifton Judicial Circuit Judge Melanie B. Cross.
Several Georgia courts have held grand jury proceedings during the pandemic under the exception provision in Justice Melton's emergency orders, and judges reported Monday that all went smoothly.
"It was amazing that there were no complaints — almost all the grand jurors showed up that had previously been selected, so that was very encouraging to us," said Judge W. Fletcher Sams of Georgia's Sixth Judicial Administrative District in Fayette County.
"It has been executed without any problems to my knowledge," Judge Ralph Van Pelt Jr. said of a recent grand jury proceeding in Georgia's Seventh Judicial Administrative District.
Justice Melton said he'll share the draft of his next judicial emergency order during the council's next virtual meeting on Sept. 8. He praised the collaborative efforts of those within Georgia's judicial community in responding to the pandemic.
"We won't be experts in this until we're completely done with it," he said. "But in this effort, we've had a lot of successes working together, and I'm grateful."
Georgia has had just over 270,000 cases of the novel coronavirus and more than 5,600 related deaths since the pandemic began in March, the Georgia Department of Public Health reported Monday.
--Editing by Philip Shea.
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