The Tallapoosa Circuit Superior Court approved a motion and summons are going out to Polk County residents to come and serve on a concurrent grand jury that will begin hearing cases in December, according to District Attorney Jack Browning.

Browning asked in a motion for a second panel to come and hear presentments to help decrease the backlog of cases that are before the current grand jury. He said the option was to potentially bring in a second panel to serve during the planning for how to handle the Grand Jury amid the COVID-19 crisis but wanted to wait to see how the process amid the restrictions in place was working out.

“The impaneling of this concurrent grand jury will provide an additional opportunity for our office to address the significant backlog of routine criminal cases that resulted from the COVID-19 related restrictions, which prohibited us from summoning jurors since March,” Browning said. “The impaneling of the second grand jury will also provide the opportunity to finally present to a grand jury some of the higher-profile cases in which there has been expected public interest and have been delayed because of COVID, as well as help avoid more recent serious cases from being delayed in the first place.”

In his motion that was approved, Browning wrote “due to circumstances unknown to the undersigned, the work of that Grand Jury is proceeding at a pace that is unprecedentedly slow. And of course, during these unprecedented and unpredictable times, the threat of having to suddenly suspend the Grand Jury proceedings due to COVID-19 is constantly at the forefront, and remains an anxious concern with regard to the state’s ability to present and clear the current backlog of cases to a Grand Jury.”

He also cited the effort to limit the intrusion on the daily lives of the current panel with the backlog of cases to have a second panel sit and hear cases as well. Both will be available to work through March 2021, when the term expires for both panels.

The current grand jury will continue to hear cases through November, and then when the second panel comes into work at the beginning of December, Browning explained that his plan will be to stagger when each panel will work to keep the potential for COVID-19 issues at a minimum.

He did say that the current grand jury had positive comments so far about how the process amid COVID-19 guidelines of serving has worked out, and he was thankful for their cooperation.

One of the concerns is that a member of the Grand Jury currently impaneled to serve might contract the virus or test positive, and require a complete shutdown of the proceedings until a quarantine period for members serving and those involved in the process directly can be completed. With a second panel, it would provide the opportunity to still present cases if such a scenario were to work out.

He added that the State Supreme Court encouraged the use of a second panel to help clear the backlog of cases created by the COVID-19 shutdown of courts over the past months.

With the approval of his motion, it marks the first time in his term in office that he has ever sought a second panel to work on grand jury cases.

Browning said that the past week of presentments marked the first step in the process of returning back to regular courtroom sessions amid the continued pandemic, and how the process continues to play out will be a factor in determining when the Tallapoosa Circuit can get back to a regular calendar.

See the link below to download the motion Browning made for the second grand jury: