12-06-2006, 08:06 PM
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#1
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Senior Member
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: B.C.
Age: 19
Posts: 113
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Pickton... Wait, who cares?
I don't know if you want to read the whole thing... I know I didn't.
http://www.mytelus.com/news/article....icleID=2472569
Quote:
VANCOUVER (CP) - Potential jurors in the trial of Robert Pickton will face more intense questioning before being chosen due to the anticipated length and notoriety of the trial, the judge ruled Monday.
"This case has also been the subject of a virtually unprecedented level of media interest, with the result that it is reasonable to believe that almost everyone who will be called as a potential juror will have been exposed to substantial reporting of the events and the investigation that led to this trial," Justice James Williams wrote in a ruling released Monday and outlining the procedure for jury selection.
Since the Pickton case has "certain features" and an anticipated length of about one year, the process of selecting a jury is more involved that most criminal trials, the judge said in setting out a detailed method to be followed.
Six hundred potential jurors must show up at the courthouse Saturday where the judge will address them and explain the process for selecting 12 of them and two alternates.
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The large pool will be divided into groups of 30 and asked to return on Monday, when the judge, Crown and defence lawyers begin the selection process.
The judge said he would exercise his usual authority to pre-screen jurors regarding hardship, personal unsuitability or conflict.
But a second phase, rare in criminal trials, will be what is known as a "challenge for cause."
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"Having regard to the unique nature of this case, the extensive pre-trial publicity and the views of counsel, I have determined that it is appropriate that there should be a specific challenge for cause conducted in respect of each juror who has not been excused at the pre-screening state, for the purpose of determining whether he or she is not impartial and should not sit on the jury."
Pickton's trial will begin Jan. 8 on six counts of first-degree murder. The remaining 20 counts he faces will be addressed at a subsequent trial.
He was arrested in early February 2002 and his preliminary hearing took place a year later. His current trial began in January 2006 but has been in a voir dire phase where the Crown and defence make arguments under a publication ban over what evidence the jury will hear.
In another ruling released Monday, the judge said jurors are entitled to privacy.
The ruling, designed to "minimally impair" the rights of the media, prohibits reporters from publishing, broadcasting or using the Internet to identify any juror
The ban also means that once jury selection begins Dec. 11, the media cannot publish any details of the jury selection process until after the 12 jurors and two alternates are selected.
The other unusual procedure for selecting the Pickton jurors will occur when they are presented with two documents when they arrive Dec. 11.
The first will contain a series of questions designed to determine whether they should be excused.
It will include questions about family, financial and health considerations that could indicate a personal hardship.
Another document will contain a list of the names of persons connected to the case or investigation. Potential jurors can identify any potential conflicts to the judge.
When a potential juror is called into the courtroom to determine whether he or she can become a juror, the judge will ask some questions to determine any potential hardship.
If there is none, the judge will move to the questions regarding the challenge for cause phase "formulated with the input of counsel."
If the juror is found suitable, the next phase involves the "peremptory challenge" process in which either the defence or Crown can reject the potential juror.
The Crown and defence will each have 22 peremptory challenges.
In British Columbia, jurors are paid on a scale set out in the Jury Act. A juror receives $20 a day for each of the first 10 days of the trial; $60 for the 11th to 49th days; and $100 a day for the 50th and each subsequent day of the trial.
If the jury sits four days a week for 50 weeks, the pay would be about $17,000.
Most union contracts stipulate that an employee excused from work for jury duty is paid the difference between his or her regular work pay and what is received for jury duty.
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Pickton is charged with one hell of a lot of murders (the most in Canadian history, I believe) but the trial is so damn long that nobody is interested anymore. I fully realise that this is justice, not entertainment, but they shouldn't call the trial 'notorious' when every has forgotten about this years-old investigation. By the time the verdict rolls around, we'll have forgotten what he did.
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