Barring unvaccinated jurors isn’t grounds for a new trial, Brooklyn judge says

March 23, 2022 Brooklyn Eagle Staff

U.S. District Judge William Kuntz, EDNY. Eagle file photo by Rob Abruzzese

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The fact that non-vaccinated people were excluded from a recent jury trial is not sufficient grounds for a new trial, U.S. District Judge William Kuntz of the Eastern District of New York recently ruled.

The trial, in September 2021, resulted in the conviction of two men, Ppassim Elder and Wilbert Bryant, for the 2017 killing of a Queens business owner, according to the New York Law Journal.

The defense lawyers objected to the vaccination requirement, saying that the requirement violated their clients’ right to a jury drawn from a cross-section of their community, the Law Journal said.

Bryant’s attorney, Michael Hueston, cited data showing that Black and Hispanic people are less likely to have received the COVID-19 vaccine.

“The risk manifested itself in our case in the absence of Black people on the jury, consistent with the racial imbalance in who is getting vaccinated,” Hueston wrote, according to the Law Journal. “During jury selection, multiple Black people were excluded based on vaccination status and ultimately only one Black person deliberated and rendered the verdict.”

Hueston also said that there were other trials in the Eastern District that didn’t have the vaccination restriction.

Kuntz said he had the discretion to exclude non-vaccinated jurors, especially since the presence of unvaccinated jurors could have put the other jurors at risk for COVID, as well as “at least one trial participant.”

Although the Eastern District has implemented substantial COVID-19 safety procedures for its courthouses, including a mask requirement and temperature checks, Judge Kuntz found that other precautions were needed, the Law Journal said.

During jury selection, Kuntz sent unvaccinated potential jurors back to the jury room, saying that they could be chosen for another case.

Jurors’ civic duty is “a duty that does not require them to risk their lives,” Judge Kuntz reportedly said.