Three out of five prospective jurors being interviewed were excused during the first day of jury selection for the murder trial of Paul Gutierrez Jr.

Wednesday, February 20, 2002

Three out of five prospective jurors being interviewed were excused during the first day of jury selection for the murder trial of Paul Gutierrez Jr. Tuesday.

The process, called voir dire, is the first step in jury selection. The court will form a 38-member jury panel from which 12 jurors and two alternates will be finally chosen. The defense attorney, prosecutor and judge will question the prospective jurors one-by-one to examine whether they can be impartial in the trail.

The court drew 60 people from its randomly selected jury resource list.

Four were excluded from the pool prior to the interview, because of personal interests in the case. One of them was a police officer, and another was a pediatrician.

The court was scheduled to interview 10 potential jurors in a three-hour period on the first day, but ended up leaving more than half of them for Wednesday.

If the court cannot not find enough qualified jurors among the current jury pool, it would have to call more.

&uot;It is a long process,&uot; said Judge James Broberg. &uot;If we finish by Friday, I would be surprised.&uot;

All members of the jury pool gathered at the courthouse in the morning Tuesday.

After introductory guidance from Broberg, the jury filled out a nine-page long questionnaire that would be used in the voir dire examination.

The whole process except the initial guidance was closed to the public. Judge Broberg ordered the potential jurors not to discuss the case with anybody.

Four bailiffs escorted them between the courtroom where the guidance and interviews were conducted and the board meeting room prepared as a waiting room.

Gutierrez is accused of the murder of 18-month-old Makaio Radke in April 2001. Gutierriez was watching the boy during an afternoon and evening while his mother was away; the boy was discovered dead the next morning. The cause of death was ruled as blunt trauma.

The trial is expected to last three weeks. Broberg said Tuesday that he will take special precautions to ensure that the high-profile trial is fair.

During a meeting with the media, Broberg confirmed that the court would maintain its policy not to allow any cameras or recording devices to be used on the entire second floor of the courthouse. It is a rule established by the county court, he said.

Many other courts in Minnesota allows camera shooting by news media through a window. But Judge Broberg said it would not be an option because of the old courthouse structure does not have a separate entrance for witnesses, defendants, attorneys and spectators, and the presence of camera may cause a chaotic situation.

Broberg also explained that he decided on the unusual closed-door interviews for the jury selection solely to have a fair and impartial jury.

According to him, Minnesota court rules give a great deal of discretion to a presiding judge over how the trial will be conducted.

JBroberg said the closed-door interview will speed up the selection process. By shutting out the public, court officers can ask private and intimate questions that are necessary to assess the impartiality of the potential jurors without interrupting the interviews to excuse the public out of the courtroom.