Jury selected for Pring-Wilson

A jury has been selected in the trial of Alexander Pring-Wilson. As promised, I went to the trial, and the day was taken up by jury selection. Judge Christopher Muse called numerous potential jurors individually to the stand to question them, and each juror was either dismissed by the judge (usually because of a hardship that made it difficult for them to serve), dismissed by defense or prosecution lawyers, or selected to be on the jury. After the judge finished questioning the first batch of jurors (numbers 68 to somewhere in the 120s), the next batch came in (about 145 to 180) and was told the basics of the case, introduced to the defendant and the lawyers, and questioned as a group. Judge Muse asked the jurors several questions, including whether they knew anyone involved in the case, had any affiliation with Harvard, knew anyone who worked for law enforcement, had heard of the case, had any problems with alcohol, or had a hardship that made it excessively burdensome for them to serve. Then the same individual questioning process happened again until 16 jurors had been selected.

At the end of the day, the 16 jurors came back into the courtroom, sat in the jury box, and received instructions from the judge to ignore media reports about the trial, avoid talking to anyone about the trial, and avoid doing independent research. The day ended at about 4:30.

Several of Pring-Wilson's friends and family members were present, as well as a couple of reporters. I bet the courtroom will be much more crowded tomorrow - the jurors are scheduled to visit locations important to the trial and then return to the courthouse for opening statements and testimony from the first three witnesses. The trial is set to last until December 7th. On Mondays and Wednesdays, the proceedings will be held from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., and on other days the trial will last from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.