IN THE SUPREME COURT OF PENNSYLVANIA

Docket No. 21 EM 2020

AUG 20 2Q21

DICTICf

In Re: Court of Common Pleas of The First Judicial District of Pennsylvania's
Amended Request Pursuant to Pa.RJA. 1952(B)(2)(m) to Temporarily Suspend or
Modify Statewide Court Rules Regarding Prompt Trials and Utilization of Advanced
Communication Technology

AND NOW, this ^U day of August, 2021, Idee C. Fox, President Judge and

Chair of the Administrative Governing Board of the First Judicial District of

Pennsylvania, hereby requests the temporary suspension or modification of statewide

rules, by Order of the Supreme Court pursuant to Pa.R.J.A. 1952(B)(2)(m), as follows:

1. Request for Order authorizing the continued temporary suspension of

a. Pennsylvania Rule of Criminal Procedure No. 600 to October 31,2021,so

that the time period between March 17, 2020 and October 31, 2021 shall

be excluded from time calculations, and shall not be attributed to the

Commonwealth or the Defendant.

b. Any state and local procedural rules, which restrict, directly or indirectly,

the use of advanced communication technology ("ACT") to October 31,

2021, to allow continued use of ACT. All judges and staff will continue to

preside in the courtroom and/or court facilities.

2. The circumstances necessitating this Request include the following:

a. Due to the recent surge in COVID-19 cases, the 7-day case average has

risen from 47 new cases per day on July 2, 2021 to a 7-day average of

281 new cases per day as of August 19, 2021, a 600% increase in just

over a month. The CDC has classified Philadelphia County as a "high"

transmission zone. According to the Pennsylvania Department of

1

RECEiVED

AUG 20202f

SUPREME COURT
EASTERN DiSTRICT

Health, Philadelphia County has the second lowest vaccination rate

per 100,000 residents of any County in the Commonwealth. In the

past month, Philadelphia County has reinstated the indoor mask

mandate. The First Judicial District implemented the same policy,

mandating mask wearing regardless of vaccination status at all court

facilities. Court leadership receives daily and weekly updates on the

number of employees who test positive for COVID-19. Although there

were weeks of zero, there has recently been a clear uptick in the

number of employee cases. There is no indication that the present

rate of increase m cases will abate in the near term.

b. Due in part to the pandemic-induced delays, the Philadelphia

Department of Prison is experiencing overcrowding conditions which

have now been exacerbated by increasing COVID-19 cases and the

accompanying need to quarantine prisoners who have tested positive

or are suspected positive cases. Currently, approximately 385 of the

department's prisoner population are quarantined as positive or

suspected COVID-19 cases. All quarantined inmates are unavailable

for court.

c. In-person court proceedings for any COVID-19 positive or suspected
positive defendant cannot be held and must be continued, placing
further strain on the court's efficiency.

d. The use of ACT allows the First Judicial District to continue to process
matters safely, fairly and expeditiously, especially for Defendants

incarcerated in Philadelphia and out-of-county facilities. The

Department of Corrections has not yet resumed transportation of

inmates pursuant to ACT 82, which enables the transportation of
inmates from state correctional institutions to Philadelphia. In

addition, transportation of inmates in other counties has not yet
returned to pre-pandemlc levels. The use of ACT will enable the

resolution of matters in which Defendant is incarcerated and cannot

be transported, avoid delay in the resolution of all matters and allow

2

time for the court to effectively and efficiently continue the expansion
of operations in conjunction with all criminal justice partners.

e. During the pandemic, the First Judicial District remained operational
and has continued to expand operations. The 32 Judges assigned to
the Trial Divlsion-Criminal Section are all working from the
courthouse daily, assigned to one of four programs: Homicide, Major
Felony, Felony Waiver, or SMART/Specialty programs. Since March 1,
2021, there have been approximately 2,245 dispositions made by
criminal judges, an average of 449 per month.

f. In an effort to expedite custody cases, the First Judicial District

developed the Custody Accelerated Resolution Program; ("CARP") a
pilot program designed to accelerate the resolution of custody cases
awaiting trial in the Major Felony Program. All judges assigned to the
Major Felony Program were reassigned to jury and non-jury
categories. All custody cases listed in the Major Felony Program were
then listed for status conferences to determine whether the matter
could proceed as a jury or non-jury trial. The use of ACT enabled the
court to conduct approximately 900 status conferences (and many of
the resulting guilty pleas) in a 3-week period. As a result, the number
of cases awaiting jury trial in the Majors Felony Program was reduced
from 886 to 456 between June 1, 2021 and July 14, 2021, a reduction
of 49%. The use of ACT is necessary to continue this successful

program.

g. The First Judicial District also conducted case conferencing hearings

of approximately 270 custody cases awaiting trial in the Felony Waiver
Program. The case conferencing hearings resulted in the resolution of
24% of the total custody cases in the program. The use of ACT
permitted defendants in local and out-of-county facilities to efficiently
and expeditiously enter guilty pleas to resolve open matters.

3

h. In addition, the First Judicial District has resumed criminal jury trials
and has selected a total of 64 juries during the pandemic. Due to the
small courtroom size, it is necessary to use three courtrooms per each
jury trial to provide participants the means to safely social distance.
One courtroom is used to conduct the trial, with some jurors in the
gallery. A second courtroom is used for socially distanced juror
deliberations. A third courtroom is set aside for public access viewing
via live stream. Further, due to social distancing, jury selection is
limited to one criminal jury per day. In light of the constraints of the
above safety procedures, the First Judicial District can safely conduct
only four criminal jury trials per week. While the First Judicial District
had planned to increase the number of criminal jury trials to eight per
week by decreasing the amount of social distancing in the
courtrooms, given the recent uptlck in cases, this process must be
postponed.

i. The continued use of ACT in Gagnon I and Gagnon II Hearings, Guilty

Plea Hearings, Sentencing Hearings, Post Conviction Relief Act

hearings, Post Sentence Motion Hearings, Bench Warrant Hearings, Bail
Hearings, Extradition Hearings and Arraignments is necessary during
this COVID-19 surge in Philadelphia County. The availabiUty of ACT as
an alternative to conducting in-person proceedings in the above

matters allows the First Judicial District to limit the number of people
in the courtroom to prevent the spread of COVID-19, and increase the
availability of lawyers to handle multiple matters across multiple
courtrooms both in Philadelphia and other counties. All judges and
staff will continue to preside in the courtroom and court facilities.

j. As set forth above, the ability to suspend the operation of Pa.R.Crim.P.
600, as permitted by the Supreme Court during the period of the
declared judicial emergency, has allowed the FJD to manage criminal
matters in such a manner that both maximized the safety of all
participants and moved cases toward resolution as quickly as
practicable.

4

k. The use of ACT has been favorably received by our justice partners in
that it has proven efficient and effective in allowing the courts of the
First Judicial District to move criminal matters through the system.
The continued use of ACT will allow for further prompt resolution of
cases. The Defender Association of Philadelphia objected to the First
Judicial District's previous petition related to the continued use of
ACT by attaching policies that apply to only one of the four programs
in the Criminal Trial Division. As the Defender Association well
knows, ACT is routinely used in all programs in the Criminal Trial
Division as described above.

1. The continued temporary suspension of Rule 600 and the continued
temporary use of ACT are tools that should remain available as
necessary for the First Judicial District given the uncertainties of the
duration and severity of the COVID-19 pandemic.

3. All of which necessitate the continued utilization of the above measures,

which have enabled to First Judicial District to conduct and resume judicial
proceedings consistent with the Supreme Court orders issued from time to
time at Nos. 531 and 532 Judicial Administration Docket, including Orders
issued on April 28, 2021, May 27, 2021, June 21, 2020 and July 2, 2021. All
ACT proceedings will be originated and operated from the Courtroom, with
Judge and staff present.

4. Notice of this request for the temporary suspension or modification of

statewide rules has been or will be:

a. Posted on the court's website;

b. Distributed to the Philadelphia Bar Association for further distribution;
c. Submitted to the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts for

publication pursuant to Rule of Judicial Administration No. 1952(0(5);
and

5

d. Published in The Legal Intelligencer, the legal publication designated by

the court for publication of legal notices.

5. Interested parties are advised that objections to any emergency judicial

order issued by the Supreme Court should be transmitted to the Supreme
Court Prothonotary.

Date: ^ u 1^^

t

arable Idee C. Fox,

President Judge, Court of Common Pleas
Chair, Administrative Governing Board of the
First Judicial District of Pennsylvania

6