Appeals court stops case mid-trial, in latest judge-prosecutor dispute over jury diversity
The Kentucky Court of Appeals has called a temporary halt to a trial, in the latest dispute over the racial composition of a jury in a criminal case before Jefferson Circuit Judge Olu Stevens.
On Tuesday, Stevens dismissed a jury panel in a robbery and assault trial, due to its lack of diversity, and issued a gag order. It sealed most of the day’s proceedings and prohibited lawyers for both sides from discussing the case.
The commonwealth’s attorney immediately appealed the dismissal of the jury panel, and an appellate judge on Thursday granted a motion for a stay of the trial while the appeal is pending, according to the Louisville Courier-Journal and WDRB.
This is the first criminal case Stevens has overseen for months, due to a series of appeals by Commonwealth’s Attorney Tom Wine contending Stevens exceeded his powers concerning jury composition and demonstrated bias against the government, WDRB reported earlier this week. Although Kentucky Chief Justice John Minton has not granted the blanket disqualification of Stevens from all criminal cases sought by Wine, he did disqualify Stevens from several individual cases.
At issue in the latest trial is whether defendant Charles Evans Jr. met his burden to show that the jury panel didn’t represent a fair cross-section of the community.
Related coverage:
ABAJournal.com: “Court-ordered mediation ends judge-prosecutor dispute; blanket disqualification motion is dropped”
