Court seals all juror names as "ounce-of-prevention-type thing"

The (Newport, Va.) Virginian-Pilot reports that local judges have been sealing the names of all jurors in all criminal cases since November. The decision was made after the state legislature passed a law last year allowing for such sealing for "good cause."

Chief Circuit Judge Frederick Lowe defended the court's policy."It's an ounce-of-prevention-type thing. . . . Since the statute gave us the authority to do it, we figured we'd do it, mostly for security," he told the paper.

Other counties have not taken such a drastic step under the new law, the newspaper reports. And the sponsor of the law thought the court went too far.

"You must have a complete riot, social anarchy, if for every case that comes into the court that you have to seal the names of every juror," said Del. Bob Marshall.