Nearly a thousand people filled out court-ordered questionnaires that could be the ticket to a seat in the jury box as the Aex Murdaugh murder trial has gotten underway today. It's the most highly publicized trial in South Carolina since Susan Smith faced murder charges nearly 3 decades ago.
Around a hundred mail-out jury forms are more typical of a largely rural judicial district like the 14th. The flurry of 900-plus questionnaires to households in the district covering Hampton, Colleton, Allendale and Beaufort Counties was presiding judge Clifton Newman's effort to streamline what is still likely to be a protracted and contentious jury-selection process.
A pool of potential jurors, fewer than a hundred were at the courthouse to be subjected to questions from both sides about what they know and how they feel about the case and the accused.
Standard procedure will allow each side so-called preemptory challenges to excuse or dismiss a certain number whose responses they don't like. The defense traditionally gets twice as many jury strikes as the prosecution.
Judge Newman has also ordered the identities of the jurors concealed, with no photos or videos of them to be allowed.
