O.J. Simpson jury selection hits halfway mark

By Melissa Arseniuk

Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2008 | 3:44 p.m.

After more than two and a half days of jury selection, Clark County District Judge Jackie Glass is half way to forming a jury for O.J. Simpson’s criminal trial.

Court officials said last week that the judge was hoping to have the jury decided by today. As the process got underway this week, however, Glass altered her expectations. Simpson is facing charges that include burglary, robbery and assault following an alleged robbery at the Palace Station Hotel & Casino in September, 2007.

Jury selection got off to a slow start Monday, when 18 of the potential jurors failed to show up. Despite the 45-minute delay early in the day, Glass adjourned early, at 5:30 p.m. that night.

The court had an unexpected extended lunch break today after some of the possible jurors were late returning from their midday meal.

“Believe it or not, we are making great progress,” Glass told the court Tuesday before adjourning for the day. At that point, a dozen people were in the pool of qualified potential jurors.

Eight additional individuals had advanced to the next stage by 2:15 p.m. The most recent addition to the group is a longtime female Las Vegas resident who works in a bank.

After Glass approved the eight candidate of the day, the total number of qualified possibly jury members reached 20 people.

At that point, Glass had previously excused 22 potential jurors for a variety of reasons, ranging from their inability to remain unbiased to previous run-ins with law enforcement.

The judge said Wednesday that it is her goal to have a jury formed by the end of the week. If this is achieved, the trial of Simpson and his co-accused, Clarence “C.J.” Stewart, will begin Monday with opening statements.

Glass and lawyers for both the defense and the prosecution began questioning potential jurors on Monday. They need a pool of 40 qualified candidates to draw from in order to form a 12-member jury for the trial. Six additional candidates will be retained for use as alternate jurors.

The prosecution and defense each have eight pre-emptive challenges to use regarding jurors. Either side can exercise a pre-emptive challenge -- and effectively remove the individual in question from the jury -- if it feels a candidate is unsuitable.

Both sides also have three additional challenges to use to eject prospective alternate jurors. Simpson was given two of the defense’s three pre-emptive challenges, while Stewart’s lawyers control the third.