Jury selection location changing in Worcester County

SNOW HILL, Md. – Worcester County is changing the way they do their jury selection. Previously the process was done at the circuit court. Now its being moved to the Snow Hill Volunteer Fire Company. “If you’ve ever been called for jury duty you know it’s a lot of people. Sometimes it can be over 100 people in a room if there’s more than one jury trial going on especially. So with COVID distancing, that makes it very difficult,” said Worcester County Commissioner Joshua Nordstrom.

Commissioner Nordstrom tells us that the fire company’s building has more room to allow for social distancing while selecting jurors. He says that the county has been thinking about how to keep everyone safe during a process for some time now. “There are a lot of people involved. There’s not just the jurors or potential jurors themselves. But all the folks who work in the process now have to leave their offices, have to leave their buildings and go down the street a little bit,” said Commissioner Nordstrom.

The commissioner says they wanted to make sure that they could still continue trials – while keeping health and safety in mind. “COVID has been with us since March and courts have been shut down. So there’s always contingency plans. When we come back what are we going to do? What is it going to look like, and how do we make sure that we keep people as safe as possible while still being able to conduct these trials?” said Commissioner Nordstrom.

Commissioner Nordstrom says some logistical issues still need to be worked out – like payment and transportation. But the county’s administration is currently working on ironing out the details.