Jury trials to resume in Allegheny County criminal courts on Monday

Allegheny County President Judge Kim Berkeley Clark knows the covid-19 pandemic isn’t over.

But with case counts dropping, and vaccinations increasing, she said Thursday, it’s time to resume criminal jury trials.

“I just feel that we have to move forward,” Clark said. “We keep waiting for the perfect time, and there is no perfect time.

“Meanwhile, people are sitting in jail.”

Jury trials in the criminal division will resume on Monday, with selection scheduled to take place at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center — the same as happened in the fall before covid cases started to spike.

Before trials were halted in October, Clark said, three juries were picked there. One of them resulted in an acquittal.

And even though only three cases actually went to trial, 42 additional cases were resolved then by plea agreements.

“Even the resumption of jury trials will lead to the resolution of many, many more cases,” the judge said.

Clark said that the current backlog in Allegheny County isn’t as high as they had expected. That, she said, is because judges have continued to hear pleas and nonjury trials, often through video conferencing, over the past year.

Cases scheduled for jury trials will be prioritized by Judge Jill E. Rangos, the administrative judge in the criminal division. Clark anticipates that process will take into consideration defendants who are incarcerated, as well as the age of the charges.

“We just can’t let people continue to sit in jail,” she said. “I think we just can’t wait anymore.”

The first case scheduled for selection on Monday is a firearms case before Judge Kevin G. Sasinoski.

Generally, jury summonses are mailed five to six weeks in advance, and enough are mailed to make 70 to 80 potential jurors available for each day of selection, according to court administration.

Jury selection will continue at the convention center with as many cases as possible picking until May 7, according to court administration.

It is unclear what will happen after that date.

Clark said that the judiciary will be understanding for potential jurors who continue to have health concerns.

Defense attorney Thomas N. Farrell, who chairs the criminal section of the Allegheny County Bar Association, echoed Clark’s sentiments.

“I’m not sure if we’re ready yet, but the problem becomes when are we going to be ready?” he said.

Farrell said he feels more hopeful that as vaccinations increase, the courthouse environment will become safer.

A prosecutor in the Allegheny County District Attorney’s office died from covid last summer, and there was an outbreak in the Department of Court Records in March.

Clark emphasized that with jury selection at the convention center — and trials limited to being heard in only two large courtrooms in the courthouse and City-County Building — covid-19 mitigation measures, such as masking and social distancing, will still be followed.

“If there were to be a serious outbreak that would put people at risk, obviously, we would shut down,” Clark said.

Dr. Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar in infectious disease at the Johns Hopkins University Center for Health Security, thinks resuming is the right decision.

“It’s not like jury selection now, in April 2021, is going to be like jury selection in April 2019,” said Adalja, who is based in Pittsburgh. “There’s still face-covering rules and social distancing rules that can make people safe in the covid era.”

Adalja, who has consulted with the federal public defender’s office to review potential compassionate care release for incarcerated defendants during the pandemic, said it’s important to consider their constitutional right to a speedy trial.

Keeping someone in jail during the pandemic, Adalja said, increases their risk of getting infected, especially since it is common for correctional facilities to have less hygiene, less opportunity for social distancing, poor ventilation and potentially less medical care.

“Covid-19 is not going anywhere,” Adalja said. “I don’t think you can delay this further. [The threshold] can’t be zero, because that’s not going to happen.”

Instead, even as new cases continue, he said, the effects of those become delimited by the increasing number of people who are vaccinated. There will be less illness, fewer serious symptoms and fewer hospitalizations, he said.

“It will become safer, increasingly, with each day.”