By the end of the day Thursday, defense attorneys and prosecutors had agreed on eight of 12 potential jurors.
9th Street’s Sophie Endrud explains the challenges they are facing in finding jurors who can be fair and impartial.
3:10 p.m. — Defense dismisses three more prospective jurors
Lead defense attorney James Rainsford dismissed three prospective jurors from the pool using peremptory challenges.
Just after the lunch break concluded, Rainsford spoke briefly with the other two defense attorneys and defendant Miguel Salguero-Olivares before announcing the dismissals to the court.
A peremptory challenge allows counsel to exclude a potential juror without giving a reason. The defense and the prosecution can each dismiss six jurors under this rule. (The prosecution has used two of its challenges so far.)
Judge Keith Gregory then asked if the defense and the prosecution were content with the other eight jurors in consideration, to which both responded yes. Still, no jurors have been officially seated.
The court will now consider replacement jurors for the three empty seats, in addition to the seat vacated earlier today.
–SOPHIE ENDRUD
2:27 p.m. — Juror dismissed after telling court he would rather serve jail time than serve on the jury
A prospective juror told a deputy that he wanted to quit the jury, no matter the consequences.
Judge Keith Gregory called the juror up to speak to him alone, and the man confirmed that he had asked the deputy what the punishment would be if he were to quit. He said he would rather serve time in jail for contempt of court than serve on the jury.
On the first day of selection on Monday, he had responded hesitantly to prosecutors’ questions, saying he had seen the story on the news but it did not concern him. Still, he had been selected as the first prospective juror on the case.
He repeated similar rhetoric today when he told Judge Gregory he felt like he had nothing to say about this case.
Judge Gregory moved to remove the juror for cause, without objection from either counsel. He added, visibly angry, that he would not order the clerk to pay the juror any money for his brief stint in the position.
“It’s a duty of citizenship [to serve on a jury]. I take that seriously…to allow for this juror to receive money from the State of North Carolina…causes me great concern as to, respectfully, whether or not he understands that it’s a duty of citizenship. I’m not paying him because he’s been here for four days,” Judge Gregory said.
–SOPHIE ENDRUD
11:47 a.m. – Jury selection continues, now in group questioning phase
The court is continuing the process of jury selection, with still none of the necessary 12 jurors selected so far.
Twelve people from the jury pool successfully passed the first round of individual questioning about media exposure. Now, the court is questioning those 12 in a group setting on a broader range of topics including their views on law enforcement and underage drinking, while also reminding them of a juror’s duties.
“The jurors are the fact finders,” Assistant District Attorney Angela Garcia-Lamarca said. “You decide what happened. You decide whether the crimes were committed, and whether or not this defendant committed them.”
Her questioning continued by asking potential jurors whether they recognized the names of potential witnesses in the case. All responded they did not.
–MÉLIA LEMOINE
9:55 a.m. — Jury selection continues, still no jurors seated
It’s Thursday, Oct. 1 — the fourth day of trial for the man accused of killing UNC student Faith Hedgepeth in September 2012.
No jurors have been seated yet.
The initial round of questions for each prospective juror focuses on media exposure to the case. Because Hedgepeth’s murder received extensive coverage from local and national news outlets, jurors are brought in individually for questioning so that other prospective jurors cannot hear their answers.
Attorneys are trying to determine if the potential jurors have seen any news reports, and, if so, if that would prevent them from being fair and impartial.
9th Street reporter Miye Sugino explains why seven potential jurors were dismissed during Day 3.
–Sarah Krueger, Managing Editor