COVID-10 and bail, the Criminal Defence Advocacy Society calls for courts to reopen, and a jury trial by Zoom in Texas

COVID-19 is a consideration when deciding if someone should remain in jail while waiting for their trial.  

In one federal penitentiary, located in Mission BC, 133 inmates and staff contracted the coronavirus.

As a judge recently pointed out, however, the risk of COVID-19 is not a “get out of jail free card.”

The overriding considerations when determining if someone should be kept in jail include whether they will attend court when required and if their detention is necessary for the protection and safety of the community. 

In the case discussed, the accused person had a very long criminal record, including 14 convictions for property offences, 22 convictions for fraud, personation, and similar offences, and 13 convictions for breaching court orders. Given this, despite the risk of COVID-19, the judge concluded that it was necessary to detain the accused man, prior to his trial, in order to protect the safety of the community. 

Also discussed is a letter from the Criminal Defence Advocacy Society, calling for a limited reopening of the Provincial Court for in-person appearances. 

The Provincial Court deals with the large majority of criminal cases and, as the letter from the CDAS points out, many of the people accused of crimes suffer from addiction issues, mental health challenges, homelessness, and have no access to technology. As a result, solutions like Zoom hearings, which are working in the Court of Appeal, don’t work for many accused people in Provincial Court. 

With the majority of criminal cases in Provincial Court having been adjourned since March, many people are being left subjected to bail conditions, with no meaningful way to access the justice system.

In other legal news, Texas is the first jurisdiction to attempt a jury trial using Zoom. The experiment ran into some challenges as a result of things including a juror who walked away from their computer to answer a phone call. The judge was unable to call the juror back because they were not wearing the headset connected to their computer.

Follow this link for a transcript of the show and links to the cases discussed.