The Iowa Supreme Court has issued an order for the procedures the district courts must follow when jury trials are allowed to resume in mid September.

The supreme court postponed trials and nearly all public, in-person court services in March to protect public health amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Their recent order states that courts will summon more prospective jurors for a trial than typical and the summons will be mailed earlier. Guthrie County Attorney Brenna Bird says the larger jury pool is in anticipation of prospective jurors requesting deferrals, “And then of course if people have concerns about their own personal health conditions or others they live with, they have a way where they can write that on the jury form and ask to be deferred to a later time and those deferrals could even be at a time where maybe COVID-19 is not an issue anymore. So they could ask for a long term deferral and they should do that if they have any concerns about that.”

As is currently being done with other court proceedings, Bird says everyone will be required to wear face coverings, including the legal counsel and judge. To ensure social distancing, the 12 jurors and alternate may be seated throughout the courtroom. Bird adds the judge may have the jury use the courtroom for deliberation to allow greater space. You can find a link to the supreme court order here.