| More Potential Jurors Qualified April 5, 2004 Scott Peterson returned to the Redwood City courtroom Monday, where jury selection resumed in his double-murder trial. Judge Alfred Delucchi said first thing that he would be "pleased as punch" to qualify two potential jurors Monday morning. After questioning by attorneys, two people were indeed qualified by noon. ************************ -One of the potential jurors, #5966, is a woman who works for Bank of America as a recruiter. She said in her questionnaire that police could be overly zealous in their arrest of someone in a high-profile case. But she said that she would treat officers called to testify during the trial with the same fairness as everyone else. She told Scott's attorney Mark Geragos that she could judge Scott fairly despite the intense pretrial publicity the case has received. Questioned about her ability to be a judge of the facts, the woman said she had experience on the other side of things. "I'm Asian," she said, adding that she grew up in a world of white people. "I've been judged all my life. My parents were Chinese. They lived in Taiwan. I know what it's like to be judged." ******************** - Potential juror #6012 is high school teacher in her 20's who said she would quit her job to serve on the case. She triggered a roar of laughter in the courtroom after Peterson's attorney, Mark Geragos, asked her whether she would be troubled if he didn't mount a vigorous defense because prosecutors have the burden of proving guilt. "If that happened to me and you were doing nothing," the woman said, "I would probably fire you." ********************* On Monday, defense attorneys asked potential jurors if they would hold there own if the vote were 11-1 and they had been deliberating for days. They also asked, for the first time, about "stealth jurors,"who are people who might be hiding their bias in order to get on the case. Last week, there was a situation of a potential "stealth juror," according to Geragos. Meanwhile, the death penalty seems to be a growing issue with respect to the jury pool. When potential juror Julie Bowen was dismissed from the murder trial, Geragos lodged a formal objection just as he does every time Delucchi dismisses a potential juror for one main reason: "I'm a Catholic, and I cannot vote for the death penalty. I am opposed for it," Bowen said. "Thirty-seven percent of the jurors that we have seen here are being thrown out or excluded solely because they have thoughtful opposition to the death penalty," Geragos said. Because it is a death penalty case, Delucchi screens potential jurors to make sure they can vote for either the death penalty or life in prison without parole. "What you get when you want a death-qualified jury is conservative people that believe in capital punishment," said defense attorney Don Heller. Some attorneys believe a jury like that is more likely to convict. "So that you end up, in reality, having a jury skewed to the prosecution's side," Heller said. "That argument has been rejected, and it's not the law in the state of California," said former San Mateo County prosecutor Chuck Smith. Other attorneys argue that death qualifying a jury actually works for the defense. "A reasonable juror is going to think and believe the prosecutor better prove this case convincingly if they expect a juror to vote for death. So, in a way, the death penalty qualification heightens the burden of proof," Smith said. That's not the argument Geragos believes. He has argued for two juries: one to decide Peterson's guilt, where the death penalty is not an issue; and the second to decide his punishment, if necessary. Delucchi shot that request down, but Geragos continues to make it an issue in court. "I think it skews the jury pool. I think it gets into a situation that is problematic, and that's why I continue to make the objection. And I will continue to make the objection going forward," Geragos said. Even Delucchi has acknowledged that this is an issue that could end up before the U.S. Supreme Court. JURORS - WHO THEY ARE HOME INDEX LACI TRIAL NEWS EVIDENCE-NEWS TV INTERVIEWS WIRETAPS AMBER MAGAZINES |
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