Due to Pandemic, Jury Trials in Many States Postponed, Mistrials in Other Trials that Were Started

https://minnlawyer.com/2020/11/24/jury-duty-no-thanks-say-many-forcing-trial-delays/

Jurors Behaving Self-Centered: Fed. Judge to Excuse Anti-masking Jurors

A federal judge in Georgia has announced that any jurors in the jury pool who refuse to wear masks will be excused from the jury pool. Sorry, havimng trouble with link. Google: Judge William M Ray III

Zoom Jury Trials Face the Risk of Hacking

Post-Covid Courts: Where Do We Go From Here?

In Minnesota committees of judges and court staff are considering how to address the thousands of backlogged cases arising since the courts effectively closed with few exceptions.  Here is a link to a story about a federal judge who paused a jury trial and before resuming it is polling jurors as to their virus concerns should the trial resume:


https://www.law360.com/trials/articles/1265533/jury-in-paused-hacking-trial-to-be-polled-on-virus-concerns?nl_pk=cefc1377-7f29-477c-92de-8ebee6ee3d0f&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=trials

Juror Dismissed From Federal Leaker Case

Buried in an article in the Wall Street Journal today about a hung jury in the criminal trial of a former CIA employee, Joshua Schulte, who allegedly stole secrets and gave them to Wikileaks, is this reference:


"...one (juror) was dismissed during deliberations last week for reading news coverage of the case..."


The federal government must be concerned that it is spending millions to prosecute serious (El Chapo and Tsarnaev) criminals and lesser (Schulte) criminals only to be possibly thwarted by juror misconduct.  It's a serious problem in federal and state courts and seems to be continuing unabated.

One Judge's Opinion: Juror Misconduct Threatens Justice

Link:https://libn.com/2020/01/14/prudenti-juror-misconduct-is-a-threat-to-criminal-justice-system/