I primarily represent individuals who are physically or financially injured. So, I want jurors back in the box as quickly as possible. However, I have grave concerns about Chief Justice Harold Melton’s recent directive allowing the resumption of jury trials.

Given the ongoing and far from controlled pandemic, would you report for jury duty in a crowded old courthouse with a bunch of strangers? Even more, whether you are accused of wrongdoing or seeking to right a wrong, would you like your fate decided by folks who report for jury duty because they are: so ignorant they don’t appreciate the hazards; so partisan that they deny the hazards; so suicidal that they embrace the hazards; or so scared of the hazards that they almost certainly will rush their deliberation to get out of the courthouse?