Church leader's child sex trial begins -
 
Kyle, In Session Field Producer
In Session
CNN
 
San Angelo, Texas - A jury of 10 women and 2 men, along with one male and one female alternate, was picked just before 9 p.m. ET Tuesday. The court hasn't sworn in the jury. Tomorrow at 2 p.m. ET, the defense will argue a motion to suppress evidence. This will likely involve testimony by several witnesses and could be lengthy. Opening statements will follow the suppression hearing and any other matters. The judge denied In Session's request to allow cameras in the courtroom, but In Session's producers and correspondents are in the courtroom to bring you all the details.

Day one of jury selection for Texas v. Warren Jeffs got underway on Monday with a total jury pool of 263 that was processed in two halves during a morning and an afternoon session. After first establishing basic qualifications such as age, county residency and English proficiency, Judge Barbara Walther explained that the trial was expected to last two to three weeks and informed the jury of possible factors that could disqualify them. At this point, individuals from the pool were invited to approach the bench to explain whatever hardships they believed prevented them from being a juror.

During the morning session, approximately four dozen jurors lined up to speak to the judge. By the end of that session, 42 potential jurors out of a pool of approximately 130 were excused. After lunch, the other half of the jury pool was processed in a similar fashion and 14 more were excused. This left the court with 207 potential jurors.

After the jury pool was dismissed, the attorneys gathered in front of the bench to discuss the logistics of how to best handle the 200+ pool for voir dire. This included the issue of whether or not the attorneys would be allowed to voir dire the potential jurors individually, or if certain questions were suitable to be posed to the jury as a whole. Defense attorney Deric Walpole strongly insisted that all potential jurors be individually voir dire’d. Judge Walther then said she believes that many of the questions attorneys wish to ask can be done so to the jury as a whole. However, one question she felt differently about involved someone having heard significant publicity about the case. She believes that what is more to the point is if that person was sufficiently prejudiced by that publicity to disqualify them as a juror. Such a question might require individual voir dire, she stated. Another question Mr. Walpole considered very important to ask potential jurors individually is what their favorite TV shows are.
 
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Originally published July 26, 2011
 
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