This morning, 14 North Texans filed into the 15th floor courtroom of U.S. District Chief Judge Barbara Lynn to begin the first jury trial to be conducted in Texas – and only the third federal jury trial in the entire U.S. – since courts shutdown at the end of March due to the COVID-19 crisis.
The scene in Judge Lynn’s courtroom – jurors spread out across the gallery, Plexiglas windows separating jurors from the lawyers, Plexiglas dividing the lawyers from the witnesses and all of them wearing face masks and gloves – is unlike any the federal courts in Texas have ever held.
But if successful, hundreds of courtrooms across the country could use it as the model for conducting criminal and civil jury trials in a safe and effective manner in the era of the coronavirus.
Even more importantly, according to legal experts, the extraordinary safety measures taken by Judge Lynn and court officials will demonstrate to the public that the courts can still carry out their constitutional responsibilities while also protecting the health of jurors.
The case is U.S. v. Timothy Tanner, an otherwise un-newsworthy criminal case in which the defendant is charged as a felon in possession of a firearm.
The trial, which is expected to last a few days, is taking place over the objection of Tanner and his lawyers, who asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit last week to stop the proceedings for public health reasons. The appeals court rejected the mandamus petition.
“If the trial proceeds on June 1 or June 8, the defendant, the jurors, the attorneys, the court’s staff, and the public at large will needlessly be exposed to an elevated risk of infection, severe illness and death,” Matthew Wright, an assistant public defender in the Northern District of Texas, wrote in the petition. “There is nothing ‘critical’ about conducting trial now. The government would suffer no harm from additional delay.”
“If a jury is selected, the district court will begin an in-person trial at or near the peak of the pandemic in Dallas, Texas without achieving any arguable government interest,” the petition stated. “This course of action is ill advised. In the interest of public safety, Mr. Tanner’s attorneys beseech this court to stop this grave and imminent threat to public health.”
Court documents show that public defender Michael Kawi is leading the defense for Tanner. Other lawyers in the public defender’s office working on the case are Stephanie Inman, Joel Page and Jason Hawkins.
Assistant U.S. Attorney John Boyle is leading a prosecution team that includes Amber Grand, Leigha Simonton, Shane Read and Rachael Jones.
A federal judge in Raleigh, North Carolina, conducted two short jury trials late last month, according the U.S. Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts.
Chief Judge Rodney Gilstrap of the Eastern District of Texas was scheduled to start a patent trial this week with a jury, but the dispute settled last week. Federal Judge Amos Mazzant III of the Eastern District also has a trial scheduled for this month. In the Northern District of Texas, three other federal judges have jury trials set to start later this month.
Judges in the Texas state courts told The Texas Lawbook that they doubt there will be any jury trials until mid-to-late August at the soonest.
“Courts that want to start back with jury trials need to give it a lot of thought, due diligence and planning,” Paula Hannaford-Agor, who is director of the Center for Jury Studies and the National Center for State Courts. “Courts realize that they have to be very careful and take every precaution. The negative PR and public blowback if a juror contracts COVID-19 during the trial will be tremendous.”
But Hannaford-Agor said Judge Lynn seems to have taken all the necessary steps to make the in-person trial as safe and risk-free as possible for the jurors.
Courthouse sources say that Judge Lynn, the clerks and court staff spent the past few weeks planning every detail of this first case to go to a jury in Texas in more than two months.
Judge Lynn, according to several lawyers, is the perfect jurist to conduct this test trial because she was a trial lawyer for several years and is a strong proponent of the jury system.
Documents show that Tanner was scheduled to go on trial the week that the federal courts shutdown in March due to the risks posed by COVID-19. As a result, it was the first and most obvious case to be set for trial now. The fact that Tanner is the lone defendant facing a single criminal count also makes it less complicated.
Judge Lynn sent questionnaires to about 100 potential jurors asking them the usual inquiries about whether they knew anyone involved in the case. She also asked several COVID-19-related questions, including whether the prospective juror worked in the healthcare industry and whether they had any medical conditions that put them at a higher risk of contracting the coronavirus.
About 40 prequalified potential jurors reported Monday to the federal courthouse in downtown Dallas, where the judge and lawyers questioned them in the first-floor jury assembly room in shifts.
Late Monday, a panel of 12 jurors and two alternates were selected.
Opening statements and testimony began this morning. The trial is expected to last about three days.
Judge Lynn and court officials have made several major changes to accommodate the jurors, defendant, lawyers, witnesses and the public.
First, only two people are allowed in the elevator at the same time to go to the 15th floor.
Second, the jurors are seated in the gallery, spread out over five rows so that they are more than six feet apart. A Plexiglas window separates the jurors from the lawyers and the defendant, who are seated at tables facing the gallery.
Third, witnesses are seated in the jury box, which also has a Plexiglas shield between them and others. Everyone in the courtroom, except witnesses, wear face masks and gloves.
Members of the bar or public can observe the trial live in a separate courtroom on the same floor as the proceedings. Judge Lynn had a camera installed at the back of her courtroom to allow a video and audio feed of the proceedings to be viewed live in the neighboring courtroom.
Jury deliberations will be conducted in a third federal courtroom on the same floor, which allows the jurors to maintain social distancing.