What Ga. Attys Are Saying About Resuming Jury Trials
Charles E. Peeler, a partner with Troutman Pepper, was quoted in the Law360 Pulse article, " What Ga. Attys Are Saying About Resuming Jury Trials."
Peeler, who was the U.S. attorney for the Middle District of Georgia until December, said that last summer his office proceeded with a criminal trial against a defendant who had been denied bond and was approaching the lower end of the charges' sentencing guideline.
The remedy was to space out jurors in the gallery portion of the courtroom, to have witnesses testify from the jury box while wearing see-through masks, and to install plexiglass partitions between lawyers and court personnel. Peeler said no one contacted COVID-19 as a result of the trial.
"It's important to remember that not all trials are equal," he said. "This was a single defendant, which made it easier than if it were 10 defendants or multiple parties in a civil case, where there's more and more people in the courtroom. It's tough, but at the same time the backlog of trials just continues to grow every day, and that needs to be resolved."