By LYNN LOFTON As in every facet of current life, the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting the way the state’s court system conducts business. Beginning in mid March, the Mississippi Supreme Court has issued emergency administrative orders pertaining to court operations, appropriate steps to protect public heath and safety, the release of pre-trial detainees, and authorization…
via Courts carry on, even in a pandemic — Mississippi Business Journal.
Both Zoom and telephone conferences in many cases are the new norm for trials where possible. In some cases, in-person trials with participants restricted to juries, judges, attorneys, security personnel, and people determined necessary to be present by the judges, are still held in specific instances.
In Sedgwick County years ago, if a prisoner is determined to dangerous to appear in court, they instituted a camera viewing where the defendant can hear and see what’s going on, but from the security of a locked location. They don’t show enough detail of where the defendant is being held, and it tended to be rare where a defendant was considered dangerous enough to warrant such additional restriction.
