You may soon be called for jury duty as grand juries resume in Middle Georgia
Officials have been given the OK in the Georgia’s 49 judicial circuits to begin convening grand juries, the panels that decide whether to indict or bring formal charges in most felony cases.
While the go-ahead for actual trials — where 12 jurors are selected from a pool of maybe three times that many — has yet to be approved, they could begin in some places around the state by year’s end.
But that likely depends on the severity of infection rates this fall amid the coronavirus pandemic, which has halted most court proceedings since March.
For now, grand juries, which are comprised of 23 people (and up to three alternates) from a pool maybe twice that, will begin meeting in many counties across Middle Georgia as early as next month.
Such gatherings will require that face coverings be worn, that social distancing guidelines be followed and that safety measures such as hand sanitizer be made available.
Most circuits expect to summon a third or so more prospective grand jurors than they typically do. That means that somewhere in the range of 50 to 80 people could be asked to show up at courthouses or other locations where they will find out if they qualify to serve on the panels, which meet for extended stretches.
To help carve into the backlog of cases awaiting indictment, Houston County District Attorney George Hartwig plans to convene two grand juries. Each will meet every other Tuesday, most likely beginning the last week in October and running through the end of the year.
“The cases have been piling up on us the last six months,” Hartwig said of the pandemic-wrought backup.
Grand juries in area counties will, at least tentatively, commence as follows:
Baldwin County on Nov. 4
Bibb County in November
Bleckley County in late October
Butts County in October
Crawford County not yet set
Dodge County in late November
Hancock County on Oct. 26
Houston County on Oct. 26
Jasper County on Oct. 8
Jones County on Oct. 6
Lamar County in December
Monroe County in November
Peach County not yet set
Pulaski County in early December
Putnam County on Nov. 2
Telfair County in early November
Wilkinson County on Oct. 13
This story was originally published September 24, 2020 at 7:00 AM.