Jury Selection Moved Back To Justice Center

After a multi-month experiment, Putnam County jury selection has now been moved back to the Putnam County Justice Center.

The county previously moved the process to the Cookeville Police Department in early May because of parking and space issues downtown. Putnam County Circuit Court Clerk Jennifer Wilkerson said the judges decided to move the jury selection back to the Justice Center, in part, because of the difficulties traveling back and forth.

“That was causing some challenges for attorneys, witnesses on cases, citizens who are kind of having to wait on the court staff and the judges to come back on sometimes,” Wilkerson said. “So there were just a lot of different challenges that everybody was evaluating and trying to make some decisions of what to do.”

Wilkerson said unfortunately the department will have to deal with the parking and space issues. Wilkerson said conversations amongst Putnam County leadership are already underway about how the county can find a better solution.

“Those conversations to address those things, they are ongoing conversations,” Wilkerson said. “There are just a lot of challenges and a lot of logistics with our current location.”

Wilkerson said the judges decision to move the jury selection process back to the Justice Center was a tough decision.

“They want to do what they can do to make the jury’s empanelment process as easy as they can for our citizens,” Wilkerson said. “But again you have to evaluate the amount of time and the amount of resources that it was taking for us to move and of course, the safety issues that go along with that as well so was definitely a difficult decision for them.”

Wilkerson said bringing a lot more people to the police department on a daily basis likely negatively impacted the police department’s performance. Wilkerson said the Cookeville Police Department was wonderful to work with and the county was not forced out by the department.