Today, 12 jurors and 6 alternate jurors ( a total of 18) were agreed upon by the prosecution and defense to serve on the trial, United States v. Dzhokar Tsarnaev. Twelve of these individuals will ultimately decide (if Tsarnaev is found guilty) on whether to sentence the 21 year old to life in prison or to death.
Jury selection was scheduled to start at 10am but due to delays that the Judge described as “logistical,” it began at 11:38am. Today marked the final stage of jury selection whereby both sides exercised their peremptory challenges.
In terms of what was said in the courtroom? Not much that I could hear from the live-stream feed other than the judge asking those in the courtroom to rise. But, I could see the defense lawyers, Tsarnarev and the prosecutors. Tsarnaev was clean shaven, wearing a dark suit jacket and pants and what appeared to be a dark grey colored shirt. He was, for the most part either picking at his hair, had his head down or was talking to his defense lawyers. The defense team, including Tsarnarev, brought their chairs close to one another to discuss the peremptory challenges written on sheets of paper that were passed back forth between the defense and the prosecution both.
For a little under an hour, the defense lawyers and prosecutors whispered amongst their respective members. Side bars were called, followed by the passing back and forth of papers from the attorneys and Judge until, finally, at 12:35pm, something exciting happened: the numbers of the selected jurors were called out.
The jurors selected to serve were identified by the numbers: 35, 41, 83, 102, 138, 229, 286, 349, 395, 441, 480, 447, 552, 567, 588, 598, 608, 638.
Check back later today for more information regarding the selected jurors, of whom I took notes on when they were questioned during voir dire.
Tomorrow, opening statements begin at 9am.
