From wearing face masks in public to homeschooling our kids, we all find ourselves doing things we could not have imagined just three months ago. For the two of us, that includes spending far more time than usual outside the courtroom. Since late March, jury trials have ground to a halt in the wake of the pandemic. Now, as states tentatively reopen, courts across the country are grappling with unprecedented challenges to resuming jury trials safely.
This article explores how one of the most socially interactive legal processes—jury selection—can conform to social-distancing guidelines, along with ways the pandemic itself might influence the jury pool and affect deliberations.
