The third day of jury selection was completed today. Hardship inquiry was conducted on another 150 jurors (75 in the morning and 75 in the afternoon). We heard the usual hardship excuses from the prospective jurors. The primary excuses accepted by the court are 1) financial hardship (the tough economic times come through loud and clear with these jurors), 2) language problems, 3) pre-paid vacations, 4) child care and 5) full time students in school.
104 individuals were excused due to hardship and 46 filled out a questionnaire and moved on to the next stage of jury selection.
The totals now after three days of hardship jury selection are 450 total jurors interviewed and 152 prospective jurors have been passed for hardship and moved to the next stage. That is a 34% passage rate and that is higher than we thought we would get for this long trial.
Jury selection resumes Tuesday morning with another day of hardship inquiry on another 150 prospective jurors. The court plans on getting approximately 220 jurors through this stage.
Everything proceeds as expected.
Monday, August 31, 2009
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Trial will Resume on Monday -100 Jurors pass the Hardsahip test
A brief trial update today. The second day of jury selection was completed and hardship inquiry was conducted on another 150 jurors. 41 of the 150 jurors were passed for hardship and move on to the next stage of general juror questioning.
The two day total is 300 jurors questioned and 100 of them remain in play for the next phase of jury selection. That is a pretty high passage rate (33%) for a case where we are asking them to be available from October through December.
The trial is in recess Friday and will resume on Monday morning. Another 150 new jurors will be brought in on Monday for hardship inquiry.
The two day total is 300 jurors questioned and 100 of them remain in play for the next phase of jury selection. That is a pretty high passage rate (33%) for a case where we are asking them to be available from October through December.
The trial is in recess Friday and will resume on Monday morning. Another 150 new jurors will be brought in on Monday for hardship inquiry.
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
First Day of Jury Selection - Rich May Murder Trial
Wednesday - Auguest 26, 2009
The first day of jury selection was conducted and 152 prospective jurors were brought into court (67 in the morning and 85 in the afternoon). The jurors were silent when Judge Parsons advised them that this was a murder trial involving the killing of a police officer but there was an audible and loud gasp/groan when they were advised the trial could last until mid-December.
The jurors were told to fill out a hardship form if they were requesting an excuse from the case due to hardship (financial, educational, medical, etc.). 58 of the 152 jurors were passed for hardship and filled out questionnaires (that is a high rate for a trial that could last to mid-December).
The trial resumes Thursday morning at 9:00 with hardship inquiry on two more panels of 75 jurors.
The first day of jury selection was conducted and 152 prospective jurors were brought into court (67 in the morning and 85 in the afternoon). The jurors were silent when Judge Parsons advised them that this was a murder trial involving the killing of a police officer but there was an audible and loud gasp/groan when they were advised the trial could last until mid-December.
The jurors were told to fill out a hardship form if they were requesting an excuse from the case due to hardship (financial, educational, medical, etc.). 58 of the 152 jurors were passed for hardship and filled out questionnaires (that is a high rate for a trial that could last to mid-December).
The trial resumes Thursday morning at 9:00 with hardship inquiry on two more panels of 75 jurors.
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Murder Trial Finally Started - With Motions
The judge recovered and we were back in court today. Several motions were discussed and refined the jury selection process that starts tomorrow morning. Here is what occurred today.
Jury selection starts tomorrow morning, Wednesday, August 26, 2009 at 9:00. The first six days of jury selection will be spent on hardship inquiry: questioning jurors whether they have a hardship in sitting as a juror for a three month trial. These six days are August 25, 27, 31, September 1, 2 and 3. 900 jurors will be brought in for hardship inquiry. 150 jurors a day (75 in morning and 75 in afternoon) for the six days.
-The jurors will be advised that they will be needed for questioning for one day in September and if selected on the jury, they will need to be available from October 12, 2009 to approximately December 16, 2009. They will then be asked if they have a hardship which means financial hardship, school hardship, health hardship or language hardship that precludes them sitting on this jury. The court will discuss the hardship claims with the attorneys and rule whether to excuse the individual jurors requesting to be excused.
-Jurors who do not claim a hardship will then be asked to fill out a juror questionnaire (15 pages long with loads of questions about the juror and the juror's attitudes or topics like the death penalty, crime, police, etc.) Those jurors will then be given a day to return in September for individual questioning on their ability to be fair and impartial in this case.
-Individual questioning of the jurors who clear hardship will start on Tuesday, September 8, 2009 and will be conducted for the remainder of the month and perhaps the first week of October(Monday through Thursday; Fridays the trial is not in session). The court granted the defense attorneys' request for the trial to be in recess on Monday, September 28, 2009 (Yom Kippur).
-The jurors will come in groups of eight in the morning and eight in the afternoon and we will question the jurors on the specific topics of death penalty, gangs, pretrial publicity (knowledge of the case), police officer-victim and race. This questioning is to see if the jurors can be fair and impartial in hearing our case. It is a lengthy and tedious process but the goal is to get fair jurors.
-The court decided there will be five alternate jurors for our trial.
-As note above, the court set the tentative date for the opening statements for October 12, 2009 followed immediately the same day with the start of the prosecution evidence. The December 16, 2009 finish date is a broad guess and it is just to give the jurors a tentative outside date for completion of the case; it might go much quicker once we get going.
-The court denied the defense motion for a lengthy statement to the prospective jurors from the judge about the history of the death penalty in California and what the death penalty and life without parole mean today.
-Without prosecution objection, the court granted the defense request for 48 hour advance notice to the other side when one attorney is calling an expert witness (for planning purposes).
Jury selection starts tomorrow morning, Wednesday, August 26, 2009 at 9:00. The first six days of jury selection will be spent on hardship inquiry: questioning jurors whether they have a hardship in sitting as a juror for a three month trial. These six days are August 25, 27, 31, September 1, 2 and 3. 900 jurors will be brought in for hardship inquiry. 150 jurors a day (75 in morning and 75 in afternoon) for the six days.
-The jurors will be advised that they will be needed for questioning for one day in September and if selected on the jury, they will need to be available from October 12, 2009 to approximately December 16, 2009. They will then be asked if they have a hardship which means financial hardship, school hardship, health hardship or language hardship that precludes them sitting on this jury. The court will discuss the hardship claims with the attorneys and rule whether to excuse the individual jurors requesting to be excused.
-Jurors who do not claim a hardship will then be asked to fill out a juror questionnaire (15 pages long with loads of questions about the juror and the juror's attitudes or topics like the death penalty, crime, police, etc.) Those jurors will then be given a day to return in September for individual questioning on their ability to be fair and impartial in this case.
-Individual questioning of the jurors who clear hardship will start on Tuesday, September 8, 2009 and will be conducted for the remainder of the month and perhaps the first week of October(Monday through Thursday; Fridays the trial is not in session). The court granted the defense attorneys' request for the trial to be in recess on Monday, September 28, 2009 (Yom Kippur).
-The jurors will come in groups of eight in the morning and eight in the afternoon and we will question the jurors on the specific topics of death penalty, gangs, pretrial publicity (knowledge of the case), police officer-victim and race. This questioning is to see if the jurors can be fair and impartial in hearing our case. It is a lengthy and tedious process but the goal is to get fair jurors.
-The court decided there will be five alternate jurors for our trial.
-As note above, the court set the tentative date for the opening statements for October 12, 2009 followed immediately the same day with the start of the prosecution evidence. The December 16, 2009 finish date is a broad guess and it is just to give the jurors a tentative outside date for completion of the case; it might go much quicker once we get going.
-The court denied the defense motion for a lengthy statement to the prospective jurors from the judge about the history of the death penalty in California and what the death penalty and life without parole mean today.
-Without prosecution objection, the court granted the defense request for 48 hour advance notice to the other side when one attorney is calling an expert witness (for planning purposes).
Monday, August 24, 2009
Judge was Sick - Delayed until Tuesday
An update from our first day back in court after the five months delay. Holding true to form (that something always seems to be impeding our progress to justice in this case), at 8:30 this morning our trial judge, Judge Craig Parsons, called in sick with the flu. He told his court clerk that he had been up all night and simply could not come in today. He is hoping it is just the 24 hour flu and expects that he will be back in court Tuesday morning.
So our case was called in the courtroom of the presiding judge, Judge Stephen Hall, who simply continued the case for one day. Assuming Judge Parsons is healthy tomorrow, we will resume Tuesday morning and start jury selection Wednesday morning at 9:00.
So our case was called in the courtroom of the presiding judge, Judge Stephen Hall, who simply continued the case for one day. Assuming Judge Parsons is healthy tomorrow, we will resume Tuesday morning and start jury selection Wednesday morning at 9:00.
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
MURDER TRAIL WILL RESTART AUGUST 24
Hello all. Thank you for the many emails. A brief note...
The trial is currently scheduled to start in two weeks - assuming that no filings occur which will create another delay.
The Jury Selection process should start later in the week of August 24.
It is expected that opening statements and testimony from witnesses will begin at the end of September or more likely the first week of October.
The Defense is bringing a post-traumatic stress disorder claim along with a self-defense claim.
You can expect that Assistant District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe will bring a strong case against both of these claims.
Rich's Father...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
