HB 52 - Post-Trial Juror Counseling

• Trial judges may offer up to 10 hours of free post-trial psychological counseling to jurors and alternate jurors exposed to extraordinarily graphic, gruesome, or emotional evidence or testimony

• Counseling applies only to jurors serving in trials involving murder, manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide, felonious assault, or sexual offenses

• Counseling must occur within 180 days after the jury is dismissed

• Counseling may be provided by the court system, a state agency, or through contract, and may be offered as individual or group sessions