In the face of COVID-19, SC courts to resume jury trials, chief justice says

After six months of a COVID-19 justice shutdown, civil and criminal jury trials and other court hearings across South Carolina will start again beginning Monday, S.C. Supreme Court Chief Justice Donald Beatty said.

“All judicial circuits should now prepare to conduct General Sessions and Common Pleas jury trials through the remainder of 2020,” Beatty wrote in a memo to court officials across the state earlier this week.

Beatty said that all precautions recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention must be implemented “in a reasonably safe manner in accordance with established COVID-19 protocol.”

That means, said Beatty, doing social distancing, wearing personal protective equipment, having sanitizing supplies available and staggering of hearings.

The Lexington County-based Rick Hubbard, 11th Judicial Circuit Solicitor, said, “We’re excited about being able to start back. We have a lot of cases that have been set for trial for a while. There’s plenty to do.” Besides Lexington, Hubbard’s circuit includes Saluda, McCormick and Edgefield counties.

“Everyone has worked real hard to have a process and procedure in place — it may slow things down, but we all know it’s just something we have to go through,” Hubbard said. “We’ve got cases already lined up.”

Fifth Circuit Solicitor Byron Gipson, whose circuit includes Richland and Kershaw counties, said he too is ready to go.

“We’ve been expecting this,” Gipson said. “We’ve been preparing, and the week of Sept. 28, we’ve got several cases ready to go.”

Gipson said in the last six months, his office has accumulated quite a backlog of cases — numbering in the thousands — since he receives more than 150 new cases every week, he said.

Some of those cases can be disposed of by guilty pleas, “but others won’t plead guilty until there is the threat of an actual jury trial hanging over them and an offer (of a negotiated plea) on the table,” Gipson said. “Now we have the ability to proceed. ... Some people are not going to move forward with their cases until it’s inevitable that there is a trial.”

Andrew Potter, president of the S.C. Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, said, “We need things to start up again.”

But, Potter said, “We want to do it in a smart, safe manner.”

Beatty’s order leaves the details of how courtroom operations will resume up to the chief administrative judge in each circuit to set up protocols in consultation with the county clerk of court.

“That sort of makes sense,” Potter said. An example of how each county is different is his home county, Anderson, which has its main courtroom on the fourth floor of the Anderson County courthouse.

“The only way up to the fourth floor is on an elevator,” he said, mentioning a situation that would appear to conflict with social distancing guidelines.

In his memo, Beatty said the courts have not completely stopped over the last six months.

“Since the beginning of this pandemic, Circuit Court and Family Court judges have held about 11,000 hearings via WebEx. Numerous other hearings have additionally been held in person, via Zoom, teleconference, and other platforms,” Beatty wrote.

Judges will still have the choice of whether to do some court proceedings remotely, Beatty said.

“When an in-person hearing is conducted, only attorneys, the parties, necessary witnesses, necessary court staff and a limited number of members of the press will be allowed to appear,” he wrote.

Beatty issued a final warning: “As we have seen thus far in 2020, the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic have been unprecedented and unpredictable. This may continue for many months. I will continue to monitor court operations and make alterations should the need arise statewide or in a particular judicial circuit.”

Beatty originally put state trials and hearings on hold in mid-March, when South Carolina had hardly any coronavirus cases.

Since then, South Carolina has had 3,098 deaths and 133,470 cases of the highly contagious, sometimes fatal respiratory disease that has killed nearly 200,000 Americans. Courthouses, with their concentrations of people being together in closed quarters for long periods of times, could promote the spread of COVID-19. Absent a vaccine, social distancing and wearing masks are said by scientists and physicians to be the best way to prevent the spread of infections.

This story was originally published September 17, 2020 at 5:00 AM.