SAN ANTONIO – For the first time since mid-March 2020, jury duty summons in Bexar County will begin showing up in mailboxes next month followed by jury trials June 1.
”It does seem to be the right time to start jury trials when you consider all the factors involved,” Local Administrative Judge Ron Rangel said Wednesday.
In a letter sent to his judicial colleagues, Rangel said he has been in close contact with local health officials, who noted that by June 1 about half of area residents will have been vaccinated for COVID-19.
Rangel said restarting in-person jury trials will be a slow process.
“Each district court is only going to try, or begin a jury trial for one case per day,” he said.
Cases that have been in the system the longest will have top priority.
”Anybody who’s charged with a district court case, a more serious high-level offense in custody, will be tried first,” Rangel explained.
He said the move will mark the beginning of courtroom proceedings to address the huge backlog of cases in the judicial system as the result of the moratorium on jury service ordered at the outset of the pandemic in March 2020.
”We do anticipate that these cases will start to chip away much faster because cases tend to work out when individuals know that there’s a jury that’s going to hear the case,” Rangel said.
The judge said virtual proceedings that began during the pandemic will continue, which he said will also help to address the case backlog.