The federal court for the Eastern District of Arkansas, long disrupted due to covid-19 precautions that put jury trials on hold for months at a time, is finally getting back on a more normal footing according to the latest administrative order issued by Chief U.S. District Judge D. Price Marshall Jr.
Marshall, in the order issued this week -- his 26th related to court operations during the pandemic -- noted that even with the uncertainty of a possible winter resurgence of the deadly virus, conditions around the world, the U.S. and Arkansas have continued to improve. For the time being, he said, mitigation efforts can be relaxed even more than previously at the discretion of each presiding judge.
Jury trials in the district were suspended in March 2020, then resumed the following June but were -- with only a few exceptions -- suspended again in November 2020 for another five months as covid-19 cases began rising again and were extended again for an additional two months. Despite those interruptions in jury trials and grand jury proceedings, the federal clerk's office -- headed by former Federal Clerk of Court Jim McCormack until his retirement at the end of June 2021 and subsequently by Federal Clerk of Court Tammy Downs, the former chief deputy clerk who assumed the top spot upon McCormack's retirement -- kept court operations moving through teleconferencing, rigorous sanitation protocols and enforcement of masking and social distancing requirements throughout the pandemic, keeping the courthouse open and most functions moving through the system.
In May 2021, with pressure building from the growing backlog of criminal and civil cases, Marshall ordered the resumption of jury trials with staggered scheduling, utilization of multiple courtrooms to allow closed circuit broadcasting of trials into adjacent courtrooms and the use of courtrooms in place of jury rooms for distancing purposes, as well as the use of the federal courthouses in Jonesboro and Helena-West Helena to the greatest extent possible in order to minimize the risk of infection.
"Each presiding Judge will decide, case by case, whether to use several large spaces for trial-related proceedings or to resume a one-courtroom drill," Marshall said in his latest order. "Each person in the courthouse should use their own judgment about distancing, just as they have been doing about masking. And while we will continue staggering the start dates for trials insofar as practicable, the press of business requires some overlap."
Marshall said the clerk of court will continue to coordinate trial settings in an effort to keep that overlap to a minimum.