CENTENNIAL — The jury that will decide the Aurora movie theater murder trial could be seated by the end of the day Monday, as the selection process reaches its most critical moment.
The 115 jurors who remain in the pool will gather Monday morning at the Arapahoe County courthouse for one final round of questioning. Eighty-three days after jury selection began in the case, a final panel of 12 jurors and 12 alternates who will decide on guilt, and possibly a death sentence, for James Holmes will be picked. The process could also last into Tuesday.
What makes the day so important for the case is how attorneys will choose that final jury.
For the previous 82 days, if the lawyers on the case wanted to dismiss a juror from the initial pool of 9,000 candidates, they needed a legally justifiable reason to do so — for instance, that a juror couldn’t be impartial. The judge had to agree to release the juror and could decide to keep the juror in the pool over one side’s objection.
On Monday, Judge Carlos Samour Jr. and attorneys on both sides will question the remaining jurors in one big group and decide whether to excuse more jurors using the same standards. But, after that is finished, the two sides will be allowed to excuse up to 22 jurors apiece without giving a reason.
The strikes — known as peremptory challenges — are seen as the most important tool lawyers have in picking a friendly jury.
“They’re a very big deal,” said Jessica Brylo, a Denver trial consultant.
They are especially important in death penalty cases because a death sentence can only be rendered unanimously. Prosecutors, Brylo said, will want to strike jurors who hesitated when asked if they could vote for a death sentence, while defense attorneys will try to get at least one of those jurors on the final panel.
Prosecutors will have to consider how the members of a jury might work together, while defense attorneys will focus on individual members. Whether a juror is outgoing, introverted, a leader or a follower will all factor into the decisions, especially for the defense, Brylo said.
“You really want to look for leaders and people who will go against the grain,” she said.
Trip DeMuth, an attorney at Faegre Baker Daniels who previously worked at the Boulder County district attorney’s office, said lawyers might consider things like jurors’ jobs or the television shows they watch. Prosecutors may be wary of engineers and scientists because they often have higher standards for proof, DeMuth said. Defense attorneys likely will strike jurors whom they believe will empathize too much with the victims.
“Every lawyer has different views on what may or may not make a good juror,” he said. “It becomes a very individual type of analysis.”
Attorneys will generally have an ordered list of jurors they want to strike.
The peremptory challenges will go quickly, with the two sides taking turns striking one juror from a group of 24 sitting in the jury box. After each strike, a juror will be called up randomly from the remaining pool to take the stricken juror’s seat.
The two sides do not have to use all of their challenges. If one side is happy with the jury, it can choose to “pass the panel.” But, if it does, it will only be able to use future strikes against new jurors added to the group after a strike from the other side.
For the attorneys involved, it requires careful strategy and intuition.
“It’s a very unscientific process,” DeMuth said.
John Ingold: 303-954-1068, jingold@denverpost.com or twitter.com/johningold
