Prospective jurors to face pointed questions
After 3 weeks of questioning for 7,000 prospective jurors, the process of seating a jury in the Aurora theater shooting trial now moves to a 2nd phase.
Starting Wednesday morning, the remaining potential jurors will be questioned face to face by attorneys on both sides.
"The lawyers are going to be asking very pointed questions on very specific issues," said legal analyst David Beller. "The death penalty obviously (being) one of them. Mental health is one of them."
Prospective jurors remaining in the pool for the Aurora movie theater shooting trial will be questioned at a rate of 12 per day starting Wednesday, according to a plan published by the court.
The plan calls for each potential juror to be questioned by the defense and prosecution for 20 minutes each. At that rate, the court and the defense estimates that they'll be able to question 960 jurors during the 16-week period set aside for this phase of the selection process.
The goal of the individual questioning is to narrow the list of candidates down to between 100 and 150 citizens.
"The objective of the attorney is not to change their minds. It's to get the answer and take it at face value," said Beller.
There's a shallow side to this process. Prospective jurors could be eliminated based off of their appearance, even their choice in music.
"The lawyers look at everything," said Beller. "The perception of their financial status, what radio they listen too."
All of the jurors remaining in the pool have already survived the cut during the 1st phase, which consisted of questionnaires administered over the past few weeks. The 3rd phase, group questioning, is scheduled to last about 2 days in May or June and will reduce the group to 12 jurors and 12 alternates for the trial.
"Both the defense and the prosecution are going to be able to eliminate jurors. And the jurors that aren't eliminated are the ones left over. And that is your jury pool," said Beller.
In many high profile cases, attorneys have hired "jury consultants," who can help make judgments based on an appearance and body language. However, Beller said he doesn't expect to see jury consultants in this trial.
The defendant has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to killing 12 people and injuring 70 others during a midnight showing in an Aurora movie theater. If jurors find him guilty, they must then decide whether to recommend the death penalty. If the defendant is found not guilty, he would be committed indefinitely to the state mental hospital.
Source: The Denver Channel, February 11, 2015
Prospective jurors in theatre shooting trial to be questioned about death penalty, mental illness
Prospective jurors in the running to serve in the trial of Colorado theatre shooting defendant James Holmes will be grilled about their views on the death penalty, mental illness and aspects of the criminal justice system as the 2nd phase of jury selection begins Wednesday.
Thousands of people have been called to court since Jan. 20 to fill out lengthy questionnaires. Judge Carlos A. Samour Jr. dismissed more than 1,000 who brought doctors' notes, weren't U.S. citizens, had family problems or weren't Arapahoe County residents.
The hundreds who weren't excused will return starting Wednesday to answer questions from the prosecution, the defence and the judge about issues at the heart of the case. They will do so in the presence of Holmes, who has been sitting quietly in the courtroom since jury selection started.
Holmes, 27, has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity in the July 20, 2012, attack on a Denver-area movie theatre that killed 12 people and injured 70 others.
If jurors find him not guilty for that reason, he would be committed indefinitely to the state psychiatric hospital. Prosecutors dispute that Holmes was insane and are seeking the death penalty, though Colorado has only executed 1 person in the last 40 years.
12 citizens will be questioned each day in a process that could last up to 4 months. Each side will have 20 minutes to ask them whether they can be fair about a case that has received massive news coverage. Samour hopes the process will find between 100 and 120 people who will then return for group questioning. 12 jurors and 12 alternates will be chosen from that pool.
The scope of jury selection is testament to the logistical hurdles of trying the rare case of a mass shooter who survives his attack. Opening statements won't likely begin until late May or early June.
Only potential jurors who would be willing to sentence someone to death can be selected. Prosecutors will try to ensure jurors have no reservations about the death penalty, while defence attorneys will look for those sympathetic to mental illness and uneasy with the idea of executing a person.
"You're talking about a human being, and that human being is right over there in the room," said Denver attorney Craig Silverman, who is not involved in the Holmes case but has been monitoring it. "It's a soul-searching moment for a person to say, under oath, that yes, under the right circumstances I could vote for death for this person."
Source: Associated Press, February 11, 2015
