The county was ready to try John Bradley Crawford a second time last week, after his first trial for the murder of 6-year-old Alexander Glanz almost 27 years ago ended in a hung jury in March.
But when not enough jurors turned up, the trial was postponed again.
It had already been postponed once from July 30.
The current trial date is set for March 10, after newly elected Commonwealth’s Attorney R. E. “Trip” Chalkley III takes over from outgoing Kirby Porter.
How did it happen that that fewer than 50 percent of the jurors received their subpoenas for such an important court proceeding?
One assumes that the process of notifying jurors is routine, with procedures in place to make sure that a sufficient number of jurors are available for all trials, not just high profile cases such as this. But this time around human error at the Circuit Court Clerk’s Office and the Sheriff’s Office combined to snarl the system.
And errors have consequences.
At question now is who will try the case (see story page 4).
One reporter even raised the possibility that the case might not be retried at all, although that appears unlikely.
Over the years, Hanover citizens have grown accustomed to a county government that regularly wins accolades for efficiency and effectiveness, so the juror confusion seems out of character for the two agencies involved.
With that in mind, we’re confident that appropriate steps will be taken at both offices to make sure a similar misstep doesn’t happen in the future.
