After a year of emergency suspension during the coronavirus pandemic, jury trials are on the brink of restarting in Amherst Circuit Court.
The first jury trial in more than a year, an aggravated malicious wounding case, is set to bring jurors into the courtroom the morning of April 14.
Jury trials were suspended at the beginning of the pandemic by the Virginia Supreme Court, which in the summer required all jurisdictions to develop and submit a plan for conducting those trials safely in the future. Once the plans were approved, the courts could restart trials at their discretion.
Most circuit courts in the Lynchburg area delayed jury trials despite getting the green light from the state in December and January. Judges in Lynchburg and the counties of Amherst, Bedford and Campbell â which all are in the 24th Judicial Circuit â signed orders that cited climbing COVID-19 infection rates in postponing jury trials.