Zooming In: Courtrooms and Defendants’ Rights during the COVID-19 Pandemic

COVID-19 placed unprecedented strains on criminal court systems, necessitating moves to digital platforms with little preparation. To study the influence of virtual courtrooms on defendant rights (e.g. effective assistance of counsel, speedy and public trials, among others), we qualitatively analyzed the journals of 44 student court watchers, documenting their observations of online court proceedings in a single state in the Northeastern United States. We find that virtual courtrooms are highly disorganized and fraught with technical malfunctions, compromising defendants’ appearances online, and impeding their ability to confer with counsel and address the court. Defendants with less access to digital platforms and incarcerated individuals are disproportionately impacted. Further, court actors tend to treat virtual court in a casual manner and are often unprepared to litigate cases, resulting in undue delays, and extended periods of pre-trial detention. Policy recommendations to improve technologies and administrative procedures are discussed.