Wake’s first jury trial in the pandemic pits Constitution vs. public health
As Wake County started its first jury trial since March, the jury box sat empty.
Instead, the men and women selected to weigh guilt in a firearms case sat out in the audience, two to a row, two rows apart.
And everyone in the room — the bailiffs, the accused and the Superior Court judge — wore masks over half their faces.
North Carolina’s most populous county resumed its long-stalled jury trials this week in a downtown Raleigh courthouse that has already seen a COVID-19 outbreak scale back employees in its civil clerk’s office.
District Attorney Lorrin Freeman said two people in her office also have tested positive since the pandemic began, but she is “cautiously optimistic” that the coronavirus won’t further slow justice’s wheels.
“We’re doing everything we can,” she said. “It’s a matter of trying to balance people’s constitutional rights with people’s public health.”
On Tuesday, court officials sent a memo closing four domestic and one civil courtrooms. Small claims court is closed. Weddings are being held outside the jail.
As a precaution, all visitors to the courthouse now have their temperatures taken before they pass through a metal detector.
In Wednesday’s trial, which had Keandre Tilghman facing charges of possession of a firearm by a felon, the courtroom’s front aisles were cordoned off with Bungee cords and the aisles were marked with one-way stickers.
This trial should only last a few days, Freeman said. More complicated cases such as homicides won’t resume until next year, and the backlog there stands at more than 50.
These jurors were all offered a chance to opt out for virus-related reasons before they appeared for jury selection, Freeman said, so there were fewer people wanting to be excused.
“People aren’t taking personal or business trips right now,” she said.
And when jurors deliberate later this week, they won’t retire to a small, smoke-filled room in the style of “Twelve Angry Men.”
They’ll retire to another empty courtroom nearby, deciding guilty or not guilty 6 feet apart.
This story was originally published November 18, 2020 at 11:14 AM with the headline "Wake’s first jury trial in the pandemic pits Constitution vs. public health."