Northern District Suspends Jury Trials for a Month; Eleventh Circuit Restricts Entry, Suspends Paper Filings

Citing “the severity of risk” posed by the spread of the novel coronavirus, the chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia on Monday suspended all jury trials and accompanying trial deadlines for 30 days. 

Chief Judge Thomas Thrash also ordered that no jurors will be summoned for civil or criminal jury trials in any division in the district — including Rome, Gainesville, and Newnan — for 30 days. All grand jury proceedings are also suspended.  

The district’s federal courthouses will remain open, and staff in the district clerk’s office will be available by telephone; mail will continue to be received and intake desks will remain open to accept court filings, “although social distancing measures will be enforced,” Thrash said. 

The judge also said in his order that because of a “reduced ability” to obtain adequate numbers of jurors and the effect of public health recommendations on the availability of counsel and court staff to be present in court, speedy trial mandates will be temporarily suspended. “The ends of justice served by ordering the continuances outweigh the best interests of the public and any defendant’s right to a speedy trial,” the judge said. 

That order likely will impact the pending criminal trial of Mitzi Bickers in the ongoing federal public corruption investigation at Atlanta City Hall.  Bickers — the city’s former human services director during the administration of former Mayor Kasim Reed, and pastor of Emmanuel Baptist Church in Atlanta, was scheduled to go to trial April 13. Bickers, who is free on bond, is accused of taking more than $2 million in bribes to steer millions of dollars in city contracts to two city contractors.

Thrash’s order still permits individual judges presiding over criminal proceedings to hold hearings, conferences and bench trials at their discretion. The order also doesn’t affect a consideration of civil or criminal motions that can be resolved without oral argument.

On Monday, U.S. magistrate judges in the Northern District began accepting arraignment waivers by indicted criminal defendants — a change from the current practice of permitting defendants to waive their personal appearance at arraignments only on superseding indictments.

However, defendants and their counsel will be required to submit a waiver form if a defendant decides to enter a not guilty plea. The waiver does not apply to defendants who have not yet had an initial appearance on the charges, who already have been arrested, or where an arrest warrant has been issued.

If a waiver is timely filed, magistrate judges will allow defense counsel to participate in an arraignment by telephone, but only if a defendant waives his or her own appearance first. Waivers must bear the original signature of both a defendant and his or her counsel.  If a defendant is in custody, waivers must be docketed at least 24 hours in advance of a hearing and a magistrate judge’s courtroom deputy notified by 3 p.m. the day before a scheduled arraignment.

Earlier Monday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit began restricting entry to the Tuttle Courthouse and the Godbold Federal Building in downtown Atlanta, only allowing in judges, court staff, members of the media and visitors with official business. 

In an order issued Sunday, Chief Judge Ed Carnes also temporarily suspended all paper filing requirements and directed individuals delivering filings, pleadings and briefs to use a drop box just inside the Godbold Building entrance on between 8:30 a.m. and 5 p.m. on weekdays. 

Carnes did so as federal magistrate judges in the Northern District of Georgia on Monday took the highly unusual step of no longer requiring some criminal defendants to make personal appearances at their criminal arraignments.

Carnes issued the order as states and the federal government try to outrace the spread of COVID-19, also known as the novel coronavirus. On Saturday, Harold Melton, chief justice of the Supreme Court of Georgia, declared a statewide judicial emergency after Gov. Brian Kemp declared a state public health emergency, and President Donald Trump declared a national emergency.  

Melton issued his statewide declaration after courts across Georgia on Friday began declaring judicial emergencies in their own state judicial circuits amid virus fears.  

At the Eleventh Circuit, attorneys appearing for oral arguments or hearings must show a bar membership card to gain courthouse entry. Pro se parties appearing for oral arguments or hearings should have their case name and case number to be allowed in. Members of the media will also be required to show their credentials before they may enter.

Anyone diagnosed with coronavirus or who has had known contact with a person infected with COVID-19, who has been asked to self-quarantine, or who is experiencing flu-like symptoms may not enter the courthouse and shall not submit paper copies of briefs or appendices.

Parties who have filed their brief and appendices electronically will temporarily not be required to file paper copies but should file a notice stating they are unable to comply with the requirement and will do so at a future date to be established by the court.

Carnes issued his order after canceling the circuit’s biennial conference last week. The conference was scheduled to take place in May.