WINONA – For the last two days, Judge Joseph H. Loper has had to caution attorneys on both sides to keep their questions brief and concise during the voir dire process or he would call the entire jury pool back into the courtroom and have them questioned as a group.
Jury selections in the Curtis Flowers murder trial entered its fourth day in Montgomery County Wednesday as potential jurors continued to be questioned.
By 7 p.m. Tuesday night, five more jurors had been excused for cause, and Wednesday morning an additional juror was excused due to a death in the family.
As of Wednesday morning, the jury pool was down to 72. Twelve jurors are needed for a final jury panel with one or two to serve as alternates.
Since attorneys for the prosecution and the defense began to question the potential jurors individually during voir dire, Loper told Flowers’ defense team, namely Allison Steiner and Ray Charles Carter, that they were asking jurors the same questions, thereby prolonging the process.
As each juror was brought into the courtroom and seated on the witness stand, Judge Loper first asked each one a series of questions: What had they heard about the Flowers’ case and where had they heard it?, Has anything they’ve heard caused them to form an opinion about the case? Could they set that opinion aside and listen to the evidence? If Flowers is found guilty could they impose the death penalty or life in prison?
At that point, District Attorney Doug Evans and defense attorneys Steiner and Carter were allowed to further question the jurors. Several times throughout the day, Loper again asked the defense not to repeat what he had just asked and to be brief in their questioning.
If warranted, however, additional questions were asked of specific jurors in the jury pool.
The first juror questioned Wednesday morning was asked about her working relationship with a member of Flowers’ family. Earlier in the week, the juror said she worked at the same facility as Flowers’ relative, but not in close proximity.
Evans asked the juror again Wednesday how close did she and the relative work, in fact, asking her to “think about it a minute,“ and she maintained her initial answer. The juror swore under oath to her answer and was dismissed back into the corridor.
About an hour later, Evans called a witness to the stand who also worked with the juror and Flowers’ relative, and asked her how closely the two worked together. The witness said the two worked “nine to 10 inches apart,” on an assembly line and had been doing so for several years.
Carter asked the witness if there was written documentation of where employees have to work and stand at the company and if so, could she produce that. The witness said she could, and that she would return with the documents.
After the witness was dismissed, Evans said he wanted the juror “struck for cause,” but the court took no action.
Voir dire of the jurors continued on Thursday.
Be the first to comment