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Law360 (February 24, 2021, 8:35 PM EST) -- Cook County, Illinois' chief judge announced Wednesday that criminal trials will resume with enhanced coronavirus safety measures at the end of March, about a year after the COVID-19 pandemic halted all jury trials in the county.
Cook County Circuit Court Chief Judge Timothy Evans' announcement said criminal trials set to resume in Chicago's criminal courthouse and a county courthouse in Bridgeview, Illinois, will be conducted with proper spacing protocols and other coronavirus-conscious measures to help litigants and jurors gather in person safely to conduct the proceedings.
A representative for the chief judge told Law360 on Wednesday that no timeline exists yet for the court to resume civil trials.
The court anticipates using more than one courtroom for every trial to maintain proper distancing, according to the chief judge's announcement. One courtroom will host the trial itself, while another courtroom will be used for jury deliberations and a third will broadcast a livestream of the proceeding for public observers. In the trial room, jurors may be seated in either the jury box or the spectator area, depending on the type of case and size of the courtroom's jury box, the announcement said.
The George N. Leighton Criminal Courthouse will host its first trial of the year on March 22, and the county courthouse in Bridgeview will resume criminal trials on March 29, the chief judge said. Anyone entering court facilities must wear a face mask, answer questions about their health and submit to a temperature check. No one with a fever will be admitted into a courthouse, and all courthouse spaces are cleaned daily, he said.
Gloves will not be required, but individuals summoned for jury duty may bring disposable gloves if they would like, Judge Evans said. The court may provide prospective jurors with latex gloves at no cost, pending available quantities, and hand sanitizer and additional face masks will also be provided at no cost, he said.
While many court procedures have been successfully conducted remotely amid the COVID-19 crisis, the U.S. Constitution grants individuals accused of crimes the right to demand a jury trial, the announcement noted. The Illinois Supreme Court has also determined that although the pandemic "continues to demand safety precautions, the rights of those seeking a jury trial need to be accommodated," it said.
Judge Evans consulted local health officials and studied best practices from courts that have already conducted jury trials during the pandemic while crafting his plan to bring criminal trials back, and he submitted his preliminary plan for resuming the trials to the Illinois Supreme Court in January, according to the announcement.
The chief judge divulged his plan at a time when Illinois is seeing an encouraging downward trend in new COVID-19 cases.
Although state officials reported more than 2,000 new cases on Wednesday, the 1,246 new cases health officials reported Monday marked the state's lowest single-day case count since July. The state's COVID-19 positivity rate has also held below 3% for several days, with health officials administering nearly 56,000 vaccine doses daily, according to information from the state health department.
--Editing by Daniel King.
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