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JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The Northeast Chapter of the Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers is calling for the Fourth Judicial Circuit to take action in the courts as cases of COVID-19 continue to surge.
More than twenty criminal defense lawyers signed and sent a letter to Chief Judge Mark Mahon. They want to suspend in-person jury trials for 30 days, and they want to do proceedings over Zoom again.
Shannon Schott is the president of the Northeast Florida chapter. She said many attorneys are worried about the impact the virus is having at the courthouse.
“As our members were getting sick, we were concerned, and then the clerks all got sick in Clay County -- that courthouse is shut down. Now there’s sick judges,” Schott said.
In June, in-person hearings resumed at the Duval County courthouse -- after proceedings were held via zoom for more than a year.
“I think Judge Mahon just needs to understand that we can do our jobs very effectively, that we want trials to continue to happen and that is why we are asking for this,” Schott said.
Mahon told News4Jax that precautions are in place -- from a mask mandate inside the courthouse to inmates being required to be tested for COVID before their pretrial hearings.
“We don’t have unlimited resources in the jail to get the inmates virtually into the courtrooms. That becomes a problem,” Mahon said. “It also pinches the public defenders’ ability to communicate with inmates in the jail because we are throwing them off those polycoms.”
The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office says more than a third of the inmates in Duval County are in quarantine. A spokesperson said 96 have tested positive as of 12:00 a.m. Friday.
Mahon said he doesn’t want to delay court cases even longer.
“There are people who have been sitting in the jail for 18 months without the right to speedy trial,” he said. “The judges and all the people should be very concerned about that and I know that they’re frustrated.”
Mahon says they are closely monitoring the cases in the community, but there are no plans to suspend any in-person court proceedings at this point.
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August 14, 2021 at 08:20AM
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Group of Jacksonville-area lawyers want to suspend in-person trials for 30 days - WJXT News4JAX
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