There have been very few Circuit Court jury trials held across Arkansas in the last year because of the COVID-19 pandemic. While there have been brief windows of time when those types of in person proceeding were allowed, the Arkansas Supreme Court has suspended all felony jury trials through the end of April. The year long delay is having an impact on everyone involved in local judicial systems.
CORRECTION: In our report, we failed to make the following distinction: Washington County Deputy Public Defender Kevin Lammers can count the number of out-of-custody pleas on one hand, but says the number of in-custody resolutions has remained about the same during the pandemic.