Media Attention and Hot Button Issues Add Challenges to Seating a Jury

02/29/2016


By Cheri Carlson of the Ventura County Star

For 10 days in January, seats filled, emptied and filled again in a packed Ventura courtroom.

Attorneys and a judge worked to pick 18 jurors from a pool of more than 200 called for the Jane Laut murder trial in Ventura County Superior Court.

Arrested in 2010 and charged with murder, Laut could face 50 years to life in prison if convicted. Prosecutors say she intentionally shot Dave Laut, her husband of 29 years, six times, while the defense says it was an act of self-defense against an abusive husband.

"You are the most important people in the courtroom," Judge David Worley told the prospective jurors in Courtroom 47 for the Laut trial, which is expected to last into March.

He might have the title, he said. But it would be the jurors who would decide the facts of the case.

Before their work started, however, attorneys for the defense and prosecution had to choose 12 jurors and six alternates.

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