BRATTLEBORO — Jurors have been chosen for Vermont’s first jury trial in more than a year. They will begin hearing evidence in a Windham County criminal case on Wednesday, paving the way for state courts to restart jury trials since the pandemic hit last year.
Twelve jurors and two alternates were picked during a daylong hearing Monday in Windham County Superior criminal court, in Brattleboro. Because of restrictions on the number of people who could be in the courtroom at the same time, the proceedings were live-streamed on YouTube.
Participants shown on screen included Superior Judge John Treadwell, defendant Anthony Wilson, defense attorney John Pritchard and Deputy State’s Attorney Steven Brown. The camera was trained away from potential jurors, though their names were sometimes called and their voices could be heard answering the attorneys’ questions.
Anyone who attends jury selections or trials in court can see jurors in person. But the court tries to insulate them from harm, intimidation or influence by keeping their identities confidential as much as possible, which means no photos or videos of them can be taken.
Some 225 Windham County residents were summoned for jury service this week, and 89 indicated they could participate, said Vermont Chief Superior Judge Brian Grearson. Jurors were brought into the courtroom 14 people at a time to maintain social distancing, he said.
It wasn’t immediately clear on Monday afternoon how many were able to participate before the attorneys selected 14 names.
Besides asking if any of the potential jurors knew someone on either side of the case, questions on Monday also touched on the current national conversation about what role police should have in communities. Brown, the prosecutor, asked whether anyone felt very strongly about either increasing police presence or reducing and potentially eliminating it.
“Does anybody have an opinion on the role that police should play,” he asked, “which may affect their ability to be fair and impartial?”
Brown said some police officers would be called to testify at the trial, which involves drug conspiracy and possession charges against Wilson. The Brattleboro man, 44, sat beside his attorney during the entire hearing on Monday. Like everyone else, he was wearing a face mask.
Whenever Judge Treadwell conferred with the attorneys — discussions that the public weren’t meant to overhear — he would pause the sound on the live-stream. Whenever the court took a break, the image of the courtroom would disappear from the screen.
Wilson’s jury trial is going to be Vermont’s first since the state Supreme Court froze jury trials on March 17, 2020, an effort to help slow the spread of the novel coronavirus. The judiciary had planned to restart jury trials last year, as well as earlier this year, but the plans fell through.
Wilson’s trial is scheduled to start at around 8:30 a.m. Wednesday. The proceedings will continue to be live-streamed on YouTube. To watch, visit the Vermont Courts–Windham Unit’s page on https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQajI1mMbudg-LUZMrlqTdQ.
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May 18, 2021 at 05:45AM
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