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They're serving time, but there hasn't even be a trial

COVID-19 has delayed trials and ends up with people, innocent or not, in jails and families aren't getting the justice they need.

MEMPHIS, Tenn — Right now in Shelby County, innocent people who have not been convicted are being held in jail, families waiting for justice aren’t getting it and there are no jury trials because there is no way you can get a jury and all other people into a Shelby County Courtroom using social distancing.

It is a bad situation, according to Administrative Judge Lee Coffee...and it won’t get any better anytime soon. He says “Jury trials (statewide) have been suspended through the end of January.”

This is all because of the spike in COVID-19 victims.

But Judge Coffee isn’t sure jury trials will resume here January. “I just don’t know,” he said, “...that we will be able to try cases through February. It may be possible in other areas of Tennessee, but until we do something about the courthouse, it would be very difficult.”

Shelby County is spending an estimated $60-million to renovate the courtrooms and offices. The project has been delayed several times. It leaves Judge Coffee and the others with a judicial albatross handing around their robes. 

“There’s no way we can socially distance folks,” says the Judge. “There’s no way we can try cases without being a ground zero...without being an epicenter for another Coronavirus outbreak.”

Here’s something else, he says. “On a given Monday we might have six hundred to eight hundred people in the jury assembly room. There’s no way we can have that many people in that small an area.”

Judges are hearing cases that don’t depend on jurors. Judge Coffee says it is time City and County leaders begin discussing building a new facility. 

“It’s the worst of all worlds,” he says. “We have a lot of folks whose individual rights have been affected...they have a right to a speedy trial. But you also have victims and families that have a right to a speedy trial also.”

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