Thurston County residents may be called for jury duty once again following the recent resumption of jury trials by District and Superior courts.
Thurston County District Court resumed jury trials on Wednesday for the first time since March 2020 and after implementing new COVID-19 safety measures. Meanwhile, Superior Court started its first jury trial since October in March and has so far conducted five trials.
These trials are being held at a Chandler Court office space leased by the county in October and opened in December. The two-year lease cost the county $468,000 for the first year with an expected 3% increase the second year, The Olympian previously reported.
Given the still-ongoing pandemic, residents can expect a different, more cautious experience if they are called for jury duty. The county leased the new space to set up courtrooms where physical distancing measures could be safely implemented, said District Court Presiding Judge Brett Buckley.
What jurors can expect
Prior to the pandemic, District Court Executive Officer Frankie Peters said about 20 people would report to the courtroom in person and sit shoulder to shoulder while the jury panel would be narrowed down in the voir dire process.
To avoid congregating too many people, he said District Court decided to move the jury selection process online while keeping the actual trial in-person. Peters said jurors responded positively to this process after it played out on Tuesday.
"From the input that I got, they were very appreciative of the opportunity to have that jury selection done virtually," Peters said.
Buckley said he was impressed by the jury's attentiveness during this process.
"It was striking to me how serious the jurors took this virtual voir dire," Buckley said. "One of the big concerns was 'well, if you can sit in your living room or your bedroom or wherever you are, you're going to be distracted.' ... These folks we're really good."
When someone gets a jury duty notice for District Court, they have a couple of opportunities to notify the court if they don't feel comfortable attending because of COVID-19 concerns, Peters said.
Buckley said the court would not compel someone to attend jury duty if they feel uncomfortable. In fact, he said it would not be ideal to have jurors experiencing anxiety.
"We're not going to force them to come to a place where they're going to spend all day worrying about, 'Am I getting sick today because I have to be here?'" Buckley said. "They are not going to be a good juror because they're going to be so distracted."
If someone cannot virtually participate in the jury selection process, the court will provide an internet-connected device and a private room at the court, Buckley said.
"Our goal is to make it so that nobody would be incapable of participating in the jury selection process because of some structural problem that's not of their own making," Buckley said.
Superior Court, on the other hand, is not conducting virtual jury selection. Instead, the court independently determined it could keep jurors safe, said court administrator Pam Hartman-Beyer.
"We felt like we could make it safe for jurors to come in person," Hartman-Beyer said. "Through the guidance of Public Health and Social Services, we have implemented a process in place that makes it safe."
Physical distancing and masks are required, and the court has a liberal rescheduling policy for people who are uncomfortable attending in person, said Jury Administrator Elizabeth Savel.
"We summon about 1,000 jurors every week and from that we generally bring in about 60 jurors depending on how many trials we have," Savel said.
Savel said jurors have until the week before their summons to notify the court if they feel uncomfortable attending. If they chose not to attend, Savel said she can reschedule jurors out to the end of the year.
About 25 jurors are brought into the courtroom at a time during the selection process, Savel said. This way the court can ensure adequate social distancing, she added.
"If they didn't want to be there, they would have already been rescheduled," Savel said. "So, for people that show up, it really feels like a normal day except with smaller groups of people."
Savel said jurors have largely offered positive feedback and Superior Court has not had to implement any changes so far.
Restarts and backlogs
District Court has attempted to restart jury trials at the Chandler Court space since it opened but fluctuating COVID-19 activity has prompted repeated delays, Buckley said.
"We were struggling with 'What's our number one obligation?'" Buckley said. "Is it the access to justice issue or is it (COVID-19) is deadly, and we have to keep people from getting the virus. ... We tried to walk that line ... but ultimately we decided public safety is the number one thing."
At the worst point, Peters said District Court had a backlog of about 2,000 cases. Now, he estimates about 1,300 to 1,400 cases remain in the backlog overall.
"We've been addressing the backlogs that we've been having and I've been seeing good progress ... but it's something we need to get through quicker than we already are," Peters said. "So getting these trials going is a big, crucial part of that."
District Court could have restarted jury trials as soon as April, but the restart was delayed six weeks due to logistical issues.
"What happens is people have been pleading guilty or the cases are being dismissed," Peters said. "It becomes hard to try a case a year later or a year and a half later. You don't know where the witnesses are. Are they still available? Are the stories the same?"
For now, District Court is addressing cases in chronological order, albeit while prioritizing cases where the suspects are in custody, Peters said. Although District Court only had one jury trial this week, he said they plan to eventually operate two at a time.
Meanwhile, Superior Court already has been conducting two trials at time. Savel said the court started a trial in March, one in April and three in May so far. Prior to this, Superior Court had only conducted five jury trials since March 2020 as COVID-19 continued to disrupt their plans.
As of Tuesday, Hartman-Beyer said about 150 in-custody cases are still awaiting trials. Although trials have resumed, they are being conducted at a slower pace.
"The process just takes a little bit longer than it used to," Hartman-Beyer said. "We try really hard to limit the amount of time that people are at court... I think that's the biggest difference between before and now."
