{"id":1245,"date":"2020-04-22T18:30:21","date_gmt":"2020-04-22T18:30:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lawyersreadytofight.com\/?p=1245"},"modified":"2023-08-10T07:49:03","modified_gmt":"2023-08-10T07:49:03","slug":"what-is-happening-to-jury-trials-during-the-pandemic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lawyersreadytofight.com\/2020\/04\/22\/what-is-happening-to-jury-trials-during-the-pandemic\/","title":{"rendered":"What is Happening to Jury Trials During the Pandemic?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>When you are in the middle of criminal court proceedings, or if you have a criminal trial coming up soon, you are probably wondering what exactly will happen with jury trials during the COVID-19 crisis. While many non-essential businesses have closed, the courts are still open. However, in an attempt to keep gatherings of people to a minimum, Indiana courts are limiting some jury trials.<\/p>\n<h4><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Jury_Trial_%E2%80%9CContinuance%E2%80%9D\"><\/span>Jury Trial \u201cContinuance\u201d<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h4><div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_65 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-grey ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<div class=\"ez-toc-title-container\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title \" >Table of Contents<\/p>\n<span class=\"ez-toc-title-toggle\"><a href=\"#\" class=\"ez-toc-pull-right ez-toc-btn ez-toc-btn-xs ez-toc-btn-default ez-toc-toggle\" aria-label=\"Toggle Table of Content\"><span class=\"ez-toc-js-icon-con\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-4'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/lawyersreadytofight.com\/2020\/04\/22\/what-is-happening-to-jury-trials-during-the-pandemic\/#Jury_Trial_%E2%80%9CContinuance%E2%80%9D\" title=\"Jury Trial \u201cContinuance\u201d\">Jury Trial \u201cContinuance\u201d<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-4'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/lawyersreadytofight.com\/2020\/04\/22\/what-is-happening-to-jury-trials-during-the-pandemic\/#Right_to_Speedy_Trial\" title=\"Right to Speedy Trial\">Right to Speedy Trial<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n\n<p>In Indianapolis, Chief Judge Loretta Rush issued an\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.in.gov\/judiciary\/files\/order-ar17-20S-CB-113.pdf\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">emergency order<\/a>\u00a0for Marion Country Circuit and Superior Courts, \u201ccontinuing,\u201d or pausing until a later date, all jury trials starting March 16, 2020, to April 15, 2020. Judge Rush then issued another order\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.in.gov\/judiciary\/files\/order-ar17-20S-CB-113a.pdf\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">extending the date to May 1, 2020<\/a>. The order applies to all civil jury trials and out-of-custody criminal trials. The order will only continue jury trials where the defendant is currently in custody if the continuance won\u2019t violate the defendant\u2019s rights.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The latest order requires the Marion Superior and Circuit Courts to review whether jury trials can resume on May 1, 2020, no later than April 13, 2020, to allow time for juror notification. There is a chance jury trials will not resume by May 1, 2020. In the meantime, Judge Rush granted, \u201c[&#8230;] permission for all hearings, including but not limited to: initial hearings, bond reviews and dispositive hearings, to be conducted remotely using available teleconferencing and\/or video conferencing.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<h4><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Right_to_Speedy_Trial\"><\/span>Right to Speedy Trial<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h4>\n<p>The Sixth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, also enshrined in the Indiana constitution, grants criminal defendants the right to a speedy and public trial by an impartial jury. As a result, while continuing trials amid a pandemic, a court has to balance a defendant\u2019s right to a speedy trial with public safety. It\u2019s unlikely that a delay of a few months alone, without other circumstances, would be a violation of a defendant\u2019s right to a speedy trial.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.in.gov\/ipac\/files\/Meilaender.Outline.pdf\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Indiana Criminal Rule 4<\/a>\u00a0also places an affirmative duty on the state of Indiana to bring a case to trial within six months if the defendant is in custody. The rule does allow for court emergencies, and the onset of the novel COVID-19 virus undoubtedly qualified as an emergency. Undoubtedly, the court will postpone most criminal jury trials until this public health emergency is under control.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When you are in the middle of criminal court proceedings, or if you have a criminal trial coming up soon, you are probably wondering what exactly will happen with jury trials during the COVID-19 crisis. While many non-essential businesses have closed, the courts are still open. However, in an attempt to keep gatherings of people [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lawyersreadytofight.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1245"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lawyersreadytofight.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lawyersreadytofight.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lawyersreadytofight.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lawyersreadytofight.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1245"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lawyersreadytofight.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1245\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2564,"href":"https:\/\/lawyersreadytofight.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1245\/revisions\/2564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lawyersreadytofight.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lawyersreadytofight.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lawyersreadytofight.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}