CRIMINAL COURT NEWS
Criminal Jury Trials Return to Travis County BY DAN DWORIN
D an Dworin is a criminal defense attorney licensed in the Western District of Texas since 1997. He is board certified in criminal law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. dworinlaw.com.
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ecause of the COVID-19 pandemic, more than a year has passed since a criminal jury trial was held in Travis County. The district and county court at law judges have announced that the long wait— and, it is hoped, the long backlog of cases awaiting trial—is finally coming to an end.1 JURY SELECTION Jury selection has been scheduled for July 8, 2021 for felony trials. Because the district courts have a large backlog of cases, these courts are rotating priority from week to week so that each district court has an equal number of weeks during which that court’s cases will have preference. The county courts at law will operate in a similar manner, starting the week of July 19, 2021. To solve the problem of social distancing, the courts are making some adaptations. For example, jury selection in felony cases will be held at the LBJ Auditorium on the UT campus. This will allow the large (sometimes in excess of 100 people) groups of potential jurors to be in one room while still remaining safely distanced. The cavernous auditorium may pose challenges for audio, and only the sharpest-eyed lawyers 26
AUSTINLAWYER | JULY/AUGUST 2021
will be able to see the back rows of the venire, but most of the panelists should be able to be seen and heard well enough. Misdemeanor jury selection poses less of a problem, as a six-person jury can usually be selected from a panel of about 30 people. The new courtroom on the first floor of the Criminal Justice Center will be used for this purpose. CRIMINAL TRIALS During trials, courtroom configuration will also be modified to allow for distancing. A jury will be seated in the gallery behind counsel tables. Witnesses will, according to preliminary plans, testify from the jury box. Plexiglass shields will be installed to separate participants, even at counsel tables. All participants will be required to wear face coverings. Submission of electronic exhibits will be encouraged to avoid multiple people handling the same exhibit. To minimize the number of people congregating around the courthouse during trials, the courtrooms adjacent to the one holding a trial will be empty during that week. Jury deliberations will be held in the empty, adjacent courtroom, rather than in the smaller jury room. Proceedings will continue to be broadcast live on YouTube, so that the number of people in the courtroom will not exceed the capacity of the socially distanced space but the requirement of open courts will be met. Priority, particularly in felony cases, will be given to cases where a defendant is incarcerated awaiting trial. With each court having a limited number of priority weeks of cases, and most courts having dozens of “jail cases” on their docket, it seems unlikely that felony defendants out on bond will have trials
Proceedings will continue to be broadcast live on YouTube, so that the number of people in the courtroom will not exceed the capacity of the socially distanced space but the requirement of open courts will be met. scheduled during 2021. However, because fewer misdemeanor defendants are unable to obtain pretrial release, out-on-bond defendants should be able to have jury trials this year in the county courts at law. Criminal—and civil—lawyers should check the respective county websites, and check with the civil district and county clerks for updates on returning to in-person hearings and trials. The state and local rules and procedures postCOVID are bound to continue changing and evolving as our communities return to normal. Criminal defense lawyers in Travis County should check the updates on the criminal courts website for any new updates. All in all, the criminal justice
system is gearing up to return to pre-pandemic processing of criminal cases, but with social AUSTIN LAWYER AL AL distancing in mind. Footnotes 1. For the latest news on the Travis County District Court in-person court appearances and voir dire guidelines please visit the Travis County website for criminal courts, at https://www.traviscountytx.gov/ courts/criminal. 2. See supra note 1.
