Court Won’t Hold Holiday Trials
A court will not hold any trials in the two weeks before Christmas because prosecutors believe jurors taken over by the holiday spirit are in no mood to convict people.
The cancellation of the mid-December trial term will allow judges and court officials to catch up on other matters that are pending, said Michael Webster, administrator of Mercer County Common Pleas Court.
Lorinda Hinch, an assistant district attorney, said prosecutors feel that the holiday spirit “lends itself more to not-guilty verdicts in close cases or nonviolent cases.”
“Jurors’ minds must wander to the 8 million things they have to do,” she added.
The courthouse in Mercer, about 60 miles northwest of Pittsburgh, takes on a festive atmosphere before the holiday. A decorated evergreen tree stands in the rotunda, and the county invites school choruses to sing in the hallways.
Judge Michael Wherry said Samuel Orr IV, a former district attorney, once complained that jurors were distracted by nearby children singing “O Little Town of Bethlehem.”
Wherry, a former defense lawyer, said he always preferred having his cases tried close to Christmas.
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