Monday, June 8, 2009

Week 2, Day 1 - Jury Selection - Detail

Monday June 8, 2009: Our correspondents inside the courthouse say that potential jurors for the Ayres case are filling up two whole courtrooms. This morning roughly 100 jurors were questioned and according to our correspondents "two or three jurors" were chosen for the jury.

"They're blowing through the jurors really fast," said one trial watcher.

5:59 PM Update:
One of our correspondents says that every time she went into the courtroom,the prosecutor and Weinberg were having discusssions in chambers. The correspondent will let us know tomorrow the genders and ages of jurors who have made the first cut.

9:15PM Update:
Prospective jurors are being told to expect the trial to end at the end of July or early August. Sounds like they blasted through at least 200 prospective jurors by the end of today; many being excused due to already scheduled and paid vacations, already planned weddings, etc..., as would be expected during summer months. We may be able to get an update on the count so far tomorrow.

We will provide further details when we can.

8 comments:

  1. Any word on the type of questions they ask, such as familiar with the case etc. I wonder what the average age of a juror is?

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  2. Sounds like they're asking picky questions. I'm getting an image of some kind of mass slaughter where the only people left alive are the ones who got shot good enough to LOOK mortally wounded, but are playing dead.

    And:

    Sounds like average age of Juror is: Juror 1 + Juror 2 / 2.0


    Ok, so my imagery is a bit dark -

    For a long time I've wanted the day to come that the trial would happen, and now that it's here, I'm pretty focused on just wishing that the whole thing would just go away.

    Perhaps we'll get some additional info later in the day about how things went in the afternoon.

    Can dismissed jurors who were there and questioned, but sent away discuss what was asked, etc? That would be interesting input.

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  3. I think a dismissed juror is under no obligation to secrecy.

    Since they did not actually hear any testimony and are not ordered not to read newspapers or watch tv etc.

    Hang in there DS!

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  4. It would be an advantage to the readers if Victoria Balfour were to be free to attend these proceedings. We readers NEED a practiced observer in the courtroom. IT seems that there are "underhanded" goings on happening--and with good reporting, perhaps this would not be so easy to carry off.

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  5. Let us not forget that there are at least four civil lawsuits by victims against Dr. Ayres:

    Don Putterman the lawyer for three of his new civil suits is not cheap.

    Ayres must be really,really worried about the fourth one - the Greg Hogue lawsuit however. Greg was the brave victim who came forward in 1987. Ayres is represented by a different set of lawyers in the Greg Hogue case. That's because unlike the others, there is police documentation on the Hogue case and ayres can't use the bogus excuse that he never saw him - as he has been doing for the 40 other victims who have come forward.

    For Hogue's suit, ayres is represented by Sonja Dahl and Thomas Donnelly.

    Greg Hogue's civil suit is available to the public on www,sanmateocourt,org. Case #CIV467743

    Greg deserves to win this lawsuit bigtime. He is to be commended for coming forward as a teenager. Bravo, Greg. Because of Greg, we have a criminal case today. We are looking forward to Greg and his mother Lonnie testifying in the criminal trial. They will be fabulous and unshakeable witnesses.

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  6. 5:59 pm update: One of our correspondents says that every time she went into the courtroom,the prosecutor and Weinberg were having discusssions in chambers. The correspondent will let us know tomorrow the genders and ages of jurors who have made the first cut.

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  7. No jurors have been chosen. The final jury will not exist until all challenges by the People and Defense have been exhausted.

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  8. That is the part that takes forever. They ask how long have you lived in San Mateo County. Where do you work, and on and on, before long the Ayres knows more about the potential juror than the juror knows about him! Talk about a jury of your peers.......

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