Thirteenth Circuit Solicitor W. Walter Wilkins held a press conference Thursday morning to make a PSA asking people to show up when they are called to jury duty.
According to Solicitor Wilkins, their office has made strong progress in catching up on roughly 88 percent of their court case backlogs, but progress on both the backlog and new cases have begun to slow down due to Greenville citizens not showing up when called to jury duty.
“When folks do not show up for jury duty, it makes it impossible for us to do our job,” Solicitor Wilkins said. “Their service is critical for us to be able to complete the cycle of the criminal justice system.”
Solicitor Wilkins also warned that those who fail to show up to jury duty may be sought out by law enforcement and brought to court to serve that jury duty and may also accrue a resulting fine.
“We started seeing a decrease about six to nine months ago, where the numbers started coming down. And then it was about two to three months ago when it became a critical issue.”
