Place your hand on the Bible: Federal jury trials resume after weeks of COVID planning

In federal court on Monday, the Bible will be cleaned after every witness swears to tell the truth.

When the judge and lawyers need to talk privately, they’ll stay in their seats and converse with a novel walkie-talkie system while white noise is pumped into the courtroom so jurors can’t overhear them.

Ahead of that, all participants in Charlotte’s first federal jury trial in three months must clear a COVID-19 health screening in the lobby, by a special nurse empowered to send anyone home, including the judge.

In short, while the wheels of justice on West Trade Street will begin turning a little more quickly this week, they’ll be grinding against an unprecedented number of changes to keep “The United States of America vs. Jesmene Lockhart” safe.

The charges against the defendant – possession of a firearm by a convicted felon – are almost routine. The planning leading up to Lockhart’s trial has been anything but.

Starting a month ago and continuing almost up to the thud of U.S. District Judge Robert Conrad’s gavel, the 87-year-old Potter Courtroom has been repurposed for pandemic-era trials.

Now, the jury will sit in what was once the public gallery, with rows of pews torn out and replaced with comfortable chairs spaced 6 feet apart.

The witness box in the front of the main courtroom has been raised 8 inches for better jury sight lines. Entrances and waiting rooms have been swapped and swapped again to determine how best to get the jurors, witnesses, clerks and other parties in and out of the courtroom in a socially distant manner.

Mock trials in Asheville and Charlotte, and a walk through the main federal courtroom in Statesville by judges and lawyers, has helped fine-tune the planning, said Clerk of Court Frank Johns.

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Conrad, who will hear Lockhart’s case, says the preparation has been effective and enlightening.

“While in the rest of society, people seem to be at each other’s throats, we have had a measure of cooperation from courthouse employees, prosecutors, the defense bar that has been extraordinary,” Conrad told the Observer on Saturday. “There seems to be a level of confidence going forward because everyone has had their say.”

Added Johns: “We think we’re as ready as we can be for something we have never done before.”

Questions and niggling last details remain, none bigger than whether the trials should be happening at all.

The continued scheduling of certain court hearings in the Western District of North Carolina during the pandemic spurred tensions between defense attorneys and the judges through much of the spring.

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Last week, the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers described the resumption of jury trials during the COVID-19 pandemic as “reckless and irresponsible.”

“Given the nature of the disease and the manner of transmission, court proceedings, especially jury trials, present a grave risk to all participants, including the public, which has a fundamental right to attend,” the group said.

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Due to a statewide order to slow the spread of the virus, jury trials in the North Carolina courts have been on hold since March.

The Mecklenburg County Jail, which holds hundreds of federal prisoners awaiting trial or sentencing, reported its first COVID-19 cases among inmates last week.

In a May 29 order, U.S. District Judge Martin Reidinger of Asheville, who recently replaced Frank Whitney as chief judge in the court district that runs from Charlotte to Asheville, gave the go-ahead for judges to begin holding criminal jury trials.

Johns says the planning for jury trials was already underway, “at a level of detail that just drives all of us crazy.”

Some things, he admits, can’t be planned for.

For instance, what if witnesses wear masks while testifying and the jurors can’t hear them? Or an attorney asks the judge to order the masks removed so the witnesses’ facial expressions are visible?

What if the new technology breaks down or a juror is flagged by the nurse for possible COVID-19 symptoms midway through the trial?

“The judge will have to be nimble. Murphy’s Law has a way of attending important events,” Johns says. “Until you go live you really don’t know how things will go.”

One thing is certain: The Lockhart trial will not be speedy.

For example, due to the safety precautions, picking the 12 jurors and two alternates may take all of Monday instead of the normal three to four hours. Because the court expects more than a few potential jurors to say they are afraid to serve, the pool is twice the normal size, Johns said.

Moreover, what is normally a public proceeding in a public courtroom will not be open to the public on Monday.

Family, interested visitors and any media will be required to follow the proceedings by remote feed in the jury-assembly room on the first floor. In fact, the second floor will be closed off to the public entirely during the trial. Lawyers will be asked to leave their filings in a drop box in the lobby or file electronically.

Inside the courtroom, the tables, seating areas, doorways, even the curtains on the window have become part of a re-imagined set piece designed to hold the trial as safely and efficiently as possible.

Monday, the planners will see if it works. What does and doesn’t will become part of the collective consciousness of the entire federal court system, says Conrad, who has been part of the nationwide planning process to reopen.

“We’re the next up. We feel confident we can do this, but time will tell,” he says. “It’s been a difficult time but also a time of unusual cooperation from different people in the criminal justice system.

“… So there is some good coming from this evil pandemic.”