JOSHUA WOLFSON Star-Tribune staff writer | Posted: Monday, September 8, 2008 12:00 am
This morning in Natrona County District Court, attorneys will begin selecting a jury for the murder trial of Donald Rolle.
If history is any indication, it won't be a quick process.
Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for Rolle, a 47-year-old Natrona County man accused of killing Jennifer Randel. Her body was found Nov. 4 along Canal Road in a rural area four miles west of Poison Spider School.
The trial is expected to take three to four weeks, and selecting 12 jurors and three alternates could take up much of the first week. The jury will be created from daily panels of 48 people.
In felony cases that don't involve the death penalty, choosing a jury usually takes part of a day. But attorneys who've worked capital cases say a handful of factors contribute to the lengthy time usually required to choose a jury for a death penalty trial.
"Everybody wants to do it right," said Fremont County Attorney Ed Newell, who's prosecuted two recent death penalty cases in Wyoming. "You are playing for very high stakes."
Essential to the process is finding a jury that is "death qualified." Jurors must be open to imposing the death penalty in certain circumstances, but at the same time, must not have made up their minds to automatically do so, regardless of the facts.
Making that determination can be time consuming.
"For a lot of people, the death penalty is an abstract concept," Newell said. "It is not something they give a lot of thought. When you sit them in a chair by themselves, when you ask that question, it tends to be a real emotional thing for most of them. They take it very seriously."
In past Wyoming death penalty cases, jury selection involved a few basic parts. In advance of the trial, panelists are sent questionnaires that might ask about the death penalty and a juror's past experience with the criminal justice system.
When the selection process - referred to in judicial terms as voir dire, a French term meaning to speak the truth - begins inside a court room, panelists are interviewed by the attorneys, first as a group, then individually.
In past Wyoming trials, the entire process has taken a week to complete.
"Generally, you get real good lawyers doing their best," Newell said. "It is a difficult, difficult thing."
The publicity that usually comes with capital cases can also draw out jury selection. But a juror would not be disqualified by merely reading about a case in the newspaper or watching a story on television. Exposure to publicity is acceptable if a juror can put aside what she's read and make a decision based on the evidence in the case.
"Most jurors, you assume, have heard about the case," said Wyatt Skaggs, a retired public defender who's tried multiple death penalty cases in Wyoming. "But if they've formed an opinion such that the opinion is going to stay regardless of what the evidence shows … then that is a problem."
The length of the trial itself can also increase the time it takes to seat a jury. Some potential jurors might not be able to participate in a long trial for medical, family and business reasons.
Even though it can proceed slowly, attorneys say jury selection is a critical part of a capital trial, especially since a unanimous decision is needed to convict or select the death penalty.
"My personal opinion is jury selection is all important to the outcome," Skaggs said.
Reach crime reporter Joshua Wolfson at (307) 266-0582 or at josh.wolfson@trib.com.
On the Web
Visit www.trib.com/randel for daily updates on the Donald Rolle murder trial and more information on the Jennifer Randel case.
Visit www.trib.com/randel for daily updates on the Donald Rolle murder trial and more information on the Jennifer Randel case.]]->