Plastic sheeting and hockey-style penalty boxes: What jury trials will look like in Michigan courtrooms

Chairs positioned 6 feet apart, plastic sheeting and face masks.

Those are some of the coronavirus precautions the world is used to now.

In courtrooms across Michigan, additional COVID-19 safety measures are also being put in place in an attempt to restart jury trials and begin to work through the massive backlog of criminal cases. Courts are taking care to protect potential jurors from COVID-19.

From hockey-style penalty boxes for jurors to plexiglass mounted on witness stands, courtrooms are going to look much different as jury trials are slowly starting to get underway in a few counties.

Except for a few exceptions, jury trials have been shutdown for nearly a year amid the coronavirus pandemic. Trials are starting up again as the positivity rate for COVID-19 declines and as defendants continue to sit in jail or on bond with a GPS ankle tether.

In Ottawa County, plastic sheeting and protective screens are common inside the courtroom officials there plan to use when they start holding jury trials again. In Kent County, the jury box is outfitted with plexiglass around each juror’s chair to resemble the penalty boxes at a hockey arena.

Charlevoix County, which held its first trial in months last week, used a nearby old school building to provide more space for jury selection.

Saginaw County took it a step farther this week in hopes of keeping the jury, witnesses, defendants, attorneys and court staff safe. Rather than conducting the trial inside a relatively small traditional courtroom, Saginaw County moved the trial inside the Dow Event Center.

RELATED: Michigan courts brace for jury trials to start again after pandemic creates massive backlog

Following the county’s first trial, Charlevoix County Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Mary Farrell considered it a success.

Between the safety measures and the consideration given to potential jurors, the trial was held with the health of those there in mind. Of the 100 potential jurors called, about 40 people were not required to show up to selection because a questionnaire before showed they were at high risk for COVID-19 or they had major concerns, Farrell said.

“We want to keep people safe,” she said. “We don’t want to have people get sick because they had to serve jury duty.

“But we also have defendants who need their trials, and we need to move forward at some point. I think it went well. I think it went very well actually.”

The layout for the Charlevoix trial amid the pandemic resulted in six jurors in the jury box — instead of the traditional 12 to 14 — one person next to it and the other six spread out where the public typically would sit.

Because of the new layout, some jurors were sitting directly behind Farrell, which was an uncomfortable experience, she said.

She wasn’t sure if the jurors could see her laptop screen, which could have evidence on it, and she wasn’t sure if they could hear her whisper to the officer sitting next to her.

“I don’t think it’s respectful that my back is to a juror,” Farrell said. “I don’t like the impression it gives.”

In addition to keeping people safe, the chosen jury needs to represent the community.

Farrell said the Charlevoix jury was pretty representative of the community, despite how many people were dismissed for health concerns.

“I do think we had a good base of jurors,” she said. “I do think it was pretty diverse as far as the age and about an even number of male and female jurors.”

The court worked with the county health department to figure out where to hold jury selection, since there wasn’t enough space at the Charlevoix courthouse. They held it in a gymnasium at the old Charlevoix elementary school – the school Farrell attended growing up.

Everyone in the courtroom wore a mask throughout the trial, which was held in the courthouse. No one really liked wearing the mask and it made gauging jurors’ reactions harder, Farrell said.

“I like being able to see their reaction and it’s very hard to tell if someone is making faces or whatever behind a mask,” Farrell said. “That was a huge drawback for me, but that isn’t anything anyone can control at this point.”

Farrell isn’t alone in her concern. Genesee County Prosecutor David Leyton has the same question, along with mid-Michigan defense attorney Al Brandt. He’s also concerned about reading witnesses’ faces.

“Do you make the witnesses wear masks?” Brandt said. “I want to see that witness’s face. I want a shield over their face, I don’t want a mask.”

The body language of jurors helped Farrell read people during the trial but it doesn’t solve the problem.

“You can tell a lot by their body language and you can obviously see eye rolling and disinterest if they’re leaning back in their chair or their eyes are closed,” she said. “I’ve been doing jury trials for a long time, so you can tell who doesn’t want to be there. You can’t tell everything and I’m sure they feel the same way. They can’t see our faces, they can’t see the defendant’s face.”

Charlevoix County has a backlog of jury trial cases to work through, just like every other county in Michigan. That backlog will take time to get through as jurors are called and witnesses subpoenaed and schedules are made around busy attorneys, Brandt said.

“In Charlevoix County we don’t have the numbers that some of the larger counties down state have,” Farrell said. “But still, that defendant doesn’t really care how many cases we have or how many cases Wayne County has. They care about their case. We’re trying to move through it.”

Wearing masks all day long is uncomfortable, the spacing of the jurors can make talking to them difficult and the process is different and awkward, but it has to be done, Farrell said.

“I didn’t particularly like the whole new thing,” Farrell said. “I’m going to be glad when we go back to not having to wear masks. But I also appreciate that people are entitled to their jury trials. …

“To have to do jury trials this way is just kind of mind blowing for someone who’s been doing this for a long time. … Unfortunately, we’re going to have a few more like this.”

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