California Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye on Wednesday suspended criminal jury trials in the state for a total of 90 days from previous deadlines.
The chief justice's order adds another 30 days of suspension to a 60-day suspension she ordered in March in view of health and safety requirements during the coronavirus pandemic.
The suspension applies to Superior Court criminal jury trials for which the previous deadline under state law occurred or will occur between March 16 and June 15.
Cantil-Sakauye issued the order in her role as head of the San Francisco-based California Judicial Council, which sets rules for the state court system.
She said the suspension was needed to balance the constitutional rights of criminal defendants with the health and safety of defendants, jurors, witnesses, lawyers and other trial participants during the “life-threatening pandemic.”
The chief justice also said courts could conduct trials at earlier dates if they could do so in compliance with health and safety rules. She said they could consider the use of remote technology.
Keep the discussion civilized. Absolutely NO
personal attacks or insults directed toward writers, nor others who
make comments. Keep it clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd,
racist or sexually-oriented language. Don't threaten. Threats of harming another
person will not be tolerated. Be truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone
or anything. Be proactive. Use the 'Report' link on
each comment to let us know of abusive posts. PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK. Anyone violating these rules will be issued a
warning. After the warning, comment privileges can be
revoked.
Please purchase a Premium Subscription to continue reading.
To continue, please log in, or sign up for a new account.
We offer one free story view per month. If you register for an account, you will get two additional story views. After those three total views, we ask that you support us with a subscription.
A subscription to our digital content is so much more than just access to our valuable content. It means you’re helping to support a local community institution that has, from its very start, supported the betterment of our society. Thank you very much!
(0) comments
Welcome to the discussion.
Log In
Keep the discussion civilized. Absolutely NO personal attacks or insults directed toward writers, nor others who make comments.
Keep it clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
Don't threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Anyone violating these rules will be issued a warning. After the warning, comment privileges can be revoked.