The attorney general is advising Ohio’s courts that they can suspend jury trials to stop the spread of coronavirus. Statehouse correspondent Karen Kasler reports.
AG Dave Yost’s opinion says courts may suspend jury trials for up to 270 days under state law in a pandemic emergency, because they could pose a health risk to jurors, to court personnel and to defendants. But Yost says this must be temporary:
“We need to think carefully about it and any adjustments that are made need to only be to accommodate the epidemic itself.”
Yost says similar actions have been taken in Washington and California and federal courts, and that the United States District Court of the Southern District of Ohio has already suspended jury trials because of the pandemic.
