Georgia’s top judge issued an order over the weekend that will allow jury trials to resume across the state.
When he declared a statewide judicial emergency in mid-March because of the coronavirus pandemic, Georgia Supreme Court Chief Justice Harold Melton suspended jury trials. The order he signed on Saturday extends the emergency for an additional 30 days but will lift the suspension on jury trials, Melton announced in a news release Wednesday.
The new order allows the chief judge of each trial court “to resume jury trials, if that can be done safely and in accordance with a final jury trial plan,” the new order says, according to the release.
An order Melton signed last month had instructed chief judges to put together a local committee in each county of the judicial circuit to come up with a detailed plan for the resumption of jury trials. The release says that plan must be in place for trials to resume.
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