COVID Halting Jury Trials This Year and Closing NNU Classes

We are peddling backwards in Idaho quite rapidly when it comes to Coronavirus and keeping it under control or at least maintaining it. Instead it is so wide spread here that even our judicial system has to take a back seat. Jury trials in Idaho are forcefully delayed until January on criminal and civil cases.

The Idaho Supreme Court previously suspended all trials in March. In early September the state high court issued an order allowing jury trials to start back up when their respective counties met the case threshold. Well fast-forward just a couple of months and cases have increased by 335 percent. Plus the statewide cases are trending upwards at about 21% per week.

They felt their was no choice but to update the order to protect public safety. It reads in part:

“Pursuant to Idaho Court Administrative Rule 48, no jury trial, whether criminal or civil, shall commence in Idaho state courts before January 4,2021. This order shall not otherwise effect any deadlines in any existing pretrial orders.”

They are not the only ones with lockdown and restrictions being added this week. Northwest Nazarene University has issues week-long 'stay-in-place' for students, faculty and staff after jump in COVID-19 cases. 35 people on campus tested positive or probable last week. They headed back to online classes for a week but if cases get worse, it will likely be extended. The "stay-in place" order started today, Wednesday, Nov. 11 and runs through Tuesday, Nov. 17.