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Law360 (August 3, 2020, 6:22 PM EDT) -- The head of the Georgia Judicial Council on Monday walked back his plan to resume grand jury proceedings amid the coronavirus pandemic, citing the state's high infection rate and low comfort level among court staff and participants for in-person events.
Georgia Supreme Court Chief Justice Harold D. Melton hosted an emergency session of the council via Zoom to discuss the potential fifth extension of the state's judicial emergency in response to the pandemic. The current order of judicial emergency, which expires Aug. 11, has not yet been officially extended.
Justice Melton said getting grand jury proceedings up and running again is a key priority for the council, but it's no longer included in the draft order for the next emergency extension. He indicated in the council's previous meeting on July 27 that the next order would include guidelines on how courts can safely conduct in-person grand jury proceedings. But on Monday, Justice Melton said the state's not quite ready yet.
"I had signaled a willingness that we may go live with grand jury proceedings, or at least give courts the option to do so, and that was largely based on my sense that the courts were well-positioned and -poised and had done the legwork and the groundwork to broaden additional roles and functions," Justice Melton told the council. "However, statewide our [coronavirus] numbers are still greatly high, and I think that the comfort level in Georgia and nationwide probably cautions against us doing that."
As of Monday afternoon, the Georgia Department of Public Health reported 195,435 confirmed cases of COVID-19, including 2,271 new cases for the day. There have been more than 3,800 coronavirus-related deaths confirmed in the state since the pandemic began.
Justice Melton implemented Georgia's judicial emergency in relation to the pandemic on March 14 and has since extended it monthly, with slight modifications and more detailed guidelines for how courts should operate. Throughout the emergency, Georgia courts have been instructed to prioritize essential services such as criminal warrants and juvenile custody proceedings, and conduct all activities remotely where possible to minimize the anticipated post-pandemic backlog. Jury selection and trials have been suspended and case deadlines tolled.
On Monday, Justice Melton said the Judicial Council's pandemic task force will fast-track guidelines on how grand jury proceedings can be safely conducted, including remotely.
"That has been front-burnered," he said.
Council members were sent a draft Friday of the next judicial emergency order, for discussion Monday. The draft order will be further reviewed and presented to the council before being implemented.
"It may be the case that we have everything in line to do in-person jury trials, but what if somebody gets sick and we have to shut it down, or if we just need another option?" he said. "I think that's an important option that we will not give up on, and the task force will continue to work on that remote jury question, fully cognizant of the real and significant challenges of that."
Flint Judicial Circuit Chief Judge Brian J. Amero, president of the Georgia Council of Superior Court Judges, said he supported the concept of resuming jury proceedings.
"I think this is something we can do in two to three months," Judge Amero said. "I'm really excited that we're looking at that."
The current order states it is unlikely jury proceedings will begin until September or later.
Last week, Justice Melton told the council that when the judicial emergency began, his hope was to be able to hold off jury trials until the pandemic subsided. But with the virus still a threat, it was time to get moving and figure out how to resume jury trials sooner, he said.
"We were considering the videoconferencing world, and that might still be something down the road that holds some promise, but in the interest of time, that's an uphill push and we need to focus on what will provide for the quickest method of moving jury trials," he said during the council's last meeting on July 27. "So that's going to be in-person and that will be where [the task force] focuses in the next few days and weeks, with the idea of giving some real clear guidance on how to move on jury trials even if we're still in the pandemic world."
--Editing by Alanna Weissman.
For a reprint of this article, please contact reprints@law360.com.
