SALISBURY, Md. - Jury trials in Maryland will resume next week. In Wicomico County, jury selection for the circuit court will not take place at the courthouse. Rather, the selection process will happen at the Wicomico Youth and Civic Center in Salisbury.
Melissa Batie is the Wicomico County Circuit Court Administrator. She says the court will select jurors at the civic center "so that we can bring in a jury panel large enough to hear any type of case and to keep them six feet apart at all times."
Prospective jurors will go through a health screening first. Then they'll take a seat at one of 85 chairs spread out six feet apart. The space is made to appear like an actual courtroom. Selected jurors will appear at the county courthouse in downtown Salisbury at 12 p.m.
"The courtroom has been reworked to accommodate social distancing. Where the jurors would ordinarily sit in the traditional jury box, we have them spread out throughout one entire side of the courtroom so we can keep them apart there," says Batie.
The witness stand is enclosed in plexiglass. Hand sanitizer will be on hand for anyone that needs it. And only so many people will be allowed in the courtroom at a time.
Despite all the safety measures put in place, one Salisbury woman says she still does not want to serve on a jury during COVID.
Bonnie Deeney is 65 and suffers from asthma and severe allergies. "You know when I got the letter last week. That's when I started making phone calls because I'm at a high risk for being one of the fatalities."
Deeney asked her doctor for a note to excuse her from jury duty. "She said there's this whole list...This whole criteria that has to be met in order for her to excuse me and if she can't check off all those things, even though I have these issues going on, that's not enough to be excused for all the criteria she's given."
Deeney says she has no problem serving on a jury, but for her, her health is her number one priority.
