Jury trials may resume by end of March as backlog extends to two years

Jury trials may resume before the end of March in a bid to clear a backlog which is causing rape and murder cases to be adjourned for up to two years.

This week several rape and murder trials have been given dates 2023, including at least two scheduled for March 2023, due to delays related to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Presidents of the various court jurisdictions met on Tuesday evening and decided jury trials should not resume in the very near future due to the high case numbers of Covid-19 and the Government’s guidelines.

However, it was decided to examine the case numbers again on March 15th. If there is a significant decrease, some jury trials may resume shortly afterwards.

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The suspension of jury trials means plans to host some trials in the conference facilities of Croke Park have been put on hold. A Courts Service spokesman said Croke Park will still be available for cases once jury trials resume.

The only exception to the moratorium on trials is cases in the Special Criminal Court involving single defendants. These can go ahead as the Special Criminal Court does not have to accommodate a jury.

The Courts Service said on Thursday the current wait time for trials has gone up by between five and six months.

There is currently a two year wait in the Central Criminal Court and a wait of between 15 and 21 months in the Circuit Court.

However many cases involving “vulnerable parties” or where defendants are in custody have been given earlier dates. These cases will go ahead by September this year at the latest, the spokesman told the Irish Times.

“This covers cases where the accused is in custody on the matter before the court or there is a child or vulnerable witness involved,” he said.

“It has always been our priority to only summons people to jury duty in times and circumstances when it is safe to do so. Since January the high levels of Covid infections has stopped this.”

Although criminal trials are technically permitted under Level 5 restrictions, the Courts Service has decided not to summon juries “as it would involve them in travelling distances from their homes, using public transport, and gathering in groups at a time of high infection rates in the community.”

Some jury trials have gone ahead during the pandemic before the latest lockdown, with trials taking place in external venues to accommodate social distancing. In some cases held in courtrooms, the jurors have been positioned around the courtroom rather than sitting beside each other in the jury box.

The Courts Service said it has not had a single case of Covid-19 transmission in a courtroom to date.