1,000 Gwinnett County cases brought to a halt

LAWRENCEVILLE - As a result of a Monday ruling that ejected the 2002 jury list for Gwinnett County, officials have decided to halt all criminal trials and most civil trials.

The shock to the Gwinnett court system came as a result of a challenge from attorneys in the capital murder case of Wesley Harris.

Hall County had a similar case last year that found minorities were not represented adequately in the jury pools. In Gwinnett it was found that jurors were incorrectly chosen by a court administrator.

In counties of a population over 216,000, the court clerk must make up the list. Gwinnett passed that mark in the 1990 census.