We鈥檙e down to 21 out of an original 24 jurors.
In a move that delayed the trial a day, three of the 19 women on the panel were kicked off the Batman movie theater shooting trial last week.
I think it鈥檚 a good thing. One of them, a mother of three in her mid-30s who sat in the top row closest to the victims and their families, knew too much. It all started with a phone call from her husband while she was on break with several other of the jurors. He told her, on speaker, that the prosecutor in the case had been caught tweeting while court was in session.
鈥淭hat idiot George Brauchler,鈥� she quoted her husband to the judge, and added, 鈥淚 don鈥檛 pay no attention to my husband most of the time.鈥�
Turns out she also knew that the defense had filed for a mistrial the week before for a separate incident.
BEEEEP. Goodbye.
Thanks for playing.
Every day Judge Carlos Samour, who has earned the respect of just about everyone in the courtroom because of his empathy and dry sense of humor, warns the jurors not to read news about the case. The are not sequestered in a hotel room; thus, he trusts them not to discuss the case. It鈥檚 not easy in these days of Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
Still, two jurors who heard the conversation because they were in earshot of the speakerphone got the boot as well. One of them was a former victims鈥� advocate for the city of Aurora 鈥� someone who knew a lot about the traumatization of a family in crisis.
In the long run, it鈥檚 a good thing. The knowledge that the DA made a bonehead move could have prejudiced those three jurors when it came down to deciding whether the defendant, James Holmes, should be found guilty and receive the death penalty for murdering 12 and wounding 70 more on July 20, 2012. This is what Brauchler is fighting for. If they think he doesn鈥檛 care enough not to tweet in court, why should they trust him? The defense, which is working to prove the accused killer is not guilty by reason of insanity, did not see the dismissals as reason to seek a mistrial.
Both sides are scared that one or two nutty jurors will force a hung jury. But that possibility may have been avoided this week.