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2021 U. Ill. L. Rev. Online 113 (2021)
Understanding the Summary Jury Trial: Perspectives from the Judiciary

handle is hein.journals/uilro2021 and id is 113 raw text is: UNDERSTANDING THE SUMMARY JURY TRIAL: PERSPECTIVES FROM THE JUDICIARY Evan R. Murphy* Monica K. Miller** Shawn C. Marsh*** Brian H. Bornstein**** The COVID-19 pandemic has affected nearly every aspect of life, and the court system is no exception. Judges have been holding hearings only for the most pressing matters, and most trials have been delayed or cancelled. Jury trials during the pandemic are especially problematic given the close proximity of ju- rors who often spend hours together in a jury box, followed by more hours or days conversing in a deliberation room. Indeed, courts are being forced to inno- vate to provide timely justice while minimizing the risk of infection to all persons involved in hearings - including court personnel and jurors. One option to promote safety during and post-pandemic is to allow jurors, and possibly other trial participants, to attend hearings remotely through online video conferencing; another alternative is to have shorter trials to limit potential exposure times. Both of these alternatives are viable, but remote participation presents a number of challenges. For example, it could produce panels that ex- clude citizens who do not own computers or have high-speed internet access, which has implications for juries' representativeness and diversity. Additionally, compared to standard in-person deliberation, remote deliberation could entail a number of cognitive, social, and behavioral differences in jurors and juries.1 De- spite these limitations, COVID-19 and post-COVID-19 courts are currently and * University of Nevada, Reno. ** University of Nevada, Reno. *** University of Nevada, Reno. **** University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Arizona State University. Author Note: Correspondence for this article should be addressed to Monica K. Miller, J.D., Ph.D., University of Nevada, Reno, Mailstop 214, Reno, NV 89557. Office Phone: (775) 784-6021; Email: mkmiller@unr.edu. The authors would like to thank The National Judicial College for supplying data for this project. Parts of this data were described in a general, non-scientific way in a brief news article published by The National Judicial College. It can be found here: https://tinyurl.com/TheNJC. 1. Brian H. Bornstein & Amy J. Kleynhans, The Evolution of Jury Research Methods: From Hugo Mun- sterberg to the Modern Age, 96 DENV. L. REv. 813, 835-37 (2018). 113

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