Zooming In
Courtrooms and Defendants’ Rights during the Covid-19 Pandemic
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12282970 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Esther Nir (0000-0002-4843-8787, New Jersey City University, Jersey City, New Jersey, USA, corresponding author), Jennifer Musial (0000-0003-1991-6193, New Jersey City University, Jersey City, New Jersey, USA) |
| Year | 2022 |
| Volume | 31 |
| Issue | 5 |
| Pages | 725-745 |
| Publication date | 2022-01-31 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Social & Legal Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0964-6639 • E-ISSN: 1461-7390 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/09646639221076099 |
| PMID | 38603204 |
| OpenAlex | W4210678208 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 9 |
| References cited | 21 |
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
Casual · Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19 · Criminal justice · Criminology · Political science · Public defender · Sociology · State (computer science · Supreme court · Trial court · Computer Science · Criminal Justice and Corrections Analysis · Judicial and Constitutional Studies · Law · Legal Education and Practice Innovations
The Internet as a social institution
“Court Can Happen Anywhere”
Defense Counsel Type, Defendant Interventions, and Punishment in a Virtual Pretrial Courtroom
An empirical study of administrative justice at times of Covid-19 in Italy
Virtual court hearings and therapeutic jurisprudence
Judging at a Distance
Covid Justice”
Public perceptions of remote courts and equal access
A new way to justice? Multimodal meaning construction in videoconferencing technology-based online criminal courts in China
The Unintended Impact of Pretrial Detention on Case Outcomes
The Independent and Joint Effects of Race/Ethnicity, Gender, and Age on Sentencing Outcomes in U.S. Federal Courts
Revisiting the Digital Divide in the Covid ‐19 Era
Racial/Ethnic Threat and Federal Sentencing
Vicious cycles
Judging in a Time of Covid
Covid-19 and digital inequalities
The Power of Experiential Learning in Emotional Courtroom Spaces
Justice reimagined
Economic Inequality, the Digital Divide, and Remote Learning During Covid-19
Ethnicity and Sentencing Outcomes in U.S. Federal Courts
Digital inequalities and why they matter
Sentencing under the Federal Sentencing Guidelines
| Unique citing works | 9 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 3 |
| Citation span | 2023 - 2026 (4) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 9 |