It’s been a year since a jury has gathered in Muscogee County. But that’s about to change.
Things will be different. To start with, those called to jury duty will report here – not the Government Center.
Jury trials will start Monday in Muscogee County. There are three scheduled for next week in front of Judge Gil McBride, Judge Ron Mullins and Judge Ben Land.
Because of COVID-19 nothing will be the same. From jury selection to the trial, what was once done in just the Government Center will be spread over three buildings – the Civic Center, adjacent Ice Rink and the Government Center.
“The assembly will be at the Ice Rink," McBride said. "Then as jurors are needed for selection, they will be moved from the Ice Rink to the Civic Center concourses.”
State Courts have been holding sessions in the Ice Rink for several months.
Those concourses are normally gathering places for fans. Now, they are the halls of justice.
“Once we are down to the 12 people and alternates who will serve on a jury, they will be actually reporting to the Government Center," McBride said.
That’s when the process will look something like normal. Except everyone will be masked and socially distanced.
“Once jury selection is finished, the trial will look a lot like we are used to, except people will be sitting at different places in the courtroom," McBride said.
McBride says this system has been ready for months, waiting for the word.
“We have been ready. We were ready in October," he said. "We were told in October to wait a little longer.”
Now that trials are back, McBride said you can expect to see a lot more movement on cases.
“We have seen the pace pick up in the last couple of weeks," he said. "We anticipated the chief justice would give us the green light to resume jury trials next week. And we have seen a lot of cases closed out in terms of guilty pleas over the last couple of weeks. The dockets have already started to condense or narrow a good deal.”
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