Defense lawyers tried to ban masks at Miami’s first in-person felony trial in COVID era

Jury selection got underway Monday in Miami-Dade’s first felony trial in the COVID-19 era, but not without a twist: The Public Defender’s Office asked to ban the “unnecessary use of masks” in the courtroom.

Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Miguel de la O denied the motion without argument on Monday morning.

The request was nonetheless a surprising one given that court officials had worked for months with lawyers, including the Public Defender’s Office, and medical experts to arrange guidelines to ensure a safe trial at the Richard E. Gerstein Justice Building in Miami.

In the motion filed Sunday, defense attorneys said masks would prohibit the defendant’s constitutional right to confront a witness and be able to judge the person’s demeanor on the stand.

“This is more than just the right to have the witness physically present. It literally means the right to meet the witness face to face,” Assistant Public Defender John L. Sullivan III wrote in a motion.

The motion also said that jurors shouldn’t wear masks. “The ability to judge the demeanor of jurors is an essential part of jury selection,” Sullivan wrote.

The request cited recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings blocking pandemic restrictions on religious gatherings. The motion did not address whether lawyers or other court personnel should be prohibited from wearing facial coverings.

The use of masks is now widely accepted as crucial in stopping the spread of the highly contagious virus, despite political outcry from opponents of restrictions. Texas and Mississippi ended mask mandates last week, and several other states are preparing to do so, despite warnings from public-health experts.

The request to ban masks was filed in the case of Florida v. Odell Wadley, who is accused of an armed robbery in Florida City in May 2019. He faces up to life in prison if convicted.

Miami-Dade’s first civil and misdemeanor criminal trials began last week, without any hitches — and with everyone wearings masks.

Monday’s jury questioning, and the entire trial, is being live-streamed on the 11th Judicial Circuit’s YouTube page.

“You are literally going to make history, whether you’re picked or not,” Judge de la O told jurors to start Monday morning’s proceedings, which were being held in the large jury pool room on the seventh floor.

The judge denied the mask motion during a break in another courtroom, a proceeding that was not live-streamed, a courts spokeswoman confirmed. In the afternoon, during the live feed, the judge recapped that the state had objected to the motion and that he had denied the request with no arguments.

Wadley’s trial is the first felony case to go to trial since March 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic forced the shutdown of public spaces across the country. For the past year in South Florida, most state criminal hearings have been conducted via Zoom, to avoid people gathering — and possible infecting each other — at the county’s cramped courthouse.

At the Gerstein building, officials plan to hold no more than three trials at any given time, and only a smaller pool of about 35 jurors is convened in person after a virtual pre-selection process. All other hearings are still being held via Zoom.

On Monday morning, everyone in the jury pool room was wearing masks, and jurors were spaced out for safety. Once a jury is selected in the Wadley case, the trial itself will begin Tuesday in courtroom 4-1, the building’s most spacious one.

Unlike before, jurors won’t have to deliberate a verdict in the cramped jury rooms. Instead, they will be allowed the entire courtroom to deliberate, with lawyers and court personnel moving to an adjacent courtroom or other offices to wait or engage in other litigation.

To improve the air quality, machines known as air-scrubbers will also run during breaks and overnight.

This story was originally published March 8, 2021 at 12:50 PM.