Wednesday, March 18

The hearing on motions was completed today with the exception of a couple of motions the court deferred until later. Trial is in recess until Monday when jury selection starts. Here are
today's results (nothing major today).

(1) The court granted the prosecution motion to allow family members to be present in chambers during the review of juror requests to be excused from jury duty due to hardship; the court had previously decided that review of hardship requests of jurors will be conducted in the judge’s chambers.

(2) The court approved the final draft of the juror questionnaire; it is 27 pages in length.

(3) The court approved the combined prosecution and defense potential witness list of 181 witnesses (to show to the jurors to see if they know anyone).

(4) The court granted over defense objection the prosecution proposed admonition to prospective jurors to not approach or consider the Peace Officer Memorial on the first floor of the building (the defense motion to remove the Memorial or Officer May’s name from the Memorial had previously been denied). The court did change his prior ruling and decided to have the Sheriff’s Office cover the words “in the Line Of Duty” at the top of the Memorial in case a juror approached the and read the Memorial.

(5) The court heard arguments on the defense renewed motion for discovery and the court decided to defer the hearing on this motion to April 3, 2009 10:30.

(6) The trial is in recess the remainder of the week and will resume on Monday, March 23, 2009 9:30 with the start of jury selection. The first two weeks will be spent asking jurors whether they can sit for the duration of this trial which is estimated to last all of May and
June and perhaps (hopefully not) into early July. 840 jurors will be questioned about hardship. Regular questioning will start on April 6.