9.Preliminary Instructions to the Selected Jury

THE COURT: The first thing is first. Y'all are 18 people, y'all are all jurors. I am not distinguishing between jurors and alternates, that will be at the end. I will say, okay, do it this way. So everybody has got to pay attention equally. A couple of things. I have got a team of law enforcement from the State Law Enforcement Division. They are going to be y'all's security in and out of the Court House so no one will bother y'all, communicate with you during the trial while you are in the Court House. Part of that necessity is because with the media here and they have got equipment and whatnot and all of this equipment will be running when we are, during the trial. Their equipment headquarters is back in what is normally the jury room, it is right beside my chambers. It is smaller, since I have got 18 of you, the room I believe y'all were in earlier is the Grand Jury room, it is bigger and has bathrooms. Y'all will be in there. So it is going to be a little bit longer walk to get back and forth and in front of the elevator and so the SLED Agents make certain while y'all are coming and going to and from the courtroom, to and from the Court House, y'all will be free from somebody saying, hey, you got a minute. No communication. Now and throughout the trial you are not to communicate with anybody, do not discuss the case with each other, don't discuss it. We are not going to go home and do any discussion with our spouses or otherwise. I am going to lean on y'all to tell me when you need a break, when you want to go to lunch, how early to start in the morning and how late to go in the evening. I am thinking 8:30 to 9:00, to 12:00 or 12:30, start back at 2:00 and go to 5:30 or so. That is me as a day, a good day's work. If y'all want to start at 8:30 the lawyers will start at 8:30. I am trying to minimize your inconvenience. Now, did I end up with any jurors, Madam Clerk, that needed the Friday early thing. I had two jurors that had a early out on Friday. I don't guess we did.

THE COURT: Anyway, so, as we go throughout, remember, y'all are under oath to not communicate about the case, not discuss the case, not do any independent research. What y'all get you will get in the courtroom as a group. Tomorrow we will start at 1:00 o'clock, opening statements. There is a couple of more things I have got to deal with, preliminary things to make things run smoother. Everybody likes to get the ball rolling and hit the ground running. This case has presented some challenges because of the, all sorts of things, get witnesses organized coming in from out-of-state. We will start probably the testimony Wednesday morning early. So, when I talk to y'all tomorrow I want to know, Wednesday morning we will start at 8:30 or 9:00. Okay. Now, I am going to select probably two people to kind of be my, not really Foreperson but my communicators. Do you need a break or something and let me know, let the bailiffs know and they will communicate with me and we will take that break. So if something is going on in trial and y'all want a break get the attention of me and we will get out of the courtroom in that fashion. So that is what we will do. Now, before we leave today I am going to put you back down in the, where you sat in the courtroom to get an idea where you are going to park. We have got parking for y'all available and it is going to be underneath, it will be secured, you will come in in a different elevator than other people. So there is a little more going on as to where y'all will park each morning. Now, here, this is important too. I made the decision to not sequester you and put you in a hotel. I want you comfortable to sleep in your own bed. Now, the bargain for that is to not talk about the case, not to do any independent research because that is how, that is what sequestration does, you take the phones, put on movies, no TV, no news. That is a hardship. Part of the bargain is y'all have that responsibility to this trial to not let something outside the Court House influence you and how you make your decision. We have a big responsibility, all 19 of us, Judge and the Jury. I make legal decisions, y'all make factual decisions. We are working together, one can't cooperate without the other. When we start tomorrow I am going to give you compensation books, kind of like the old homework notebooks, they were black and white, I want y'all to get one if you want, nobody is required to take notes. But people like to have that just to jot stuff down. So I went and bought some at Walmart this morning and pens for each of you. And I told the Clerk, I want to give them to them from me. That is what I will do. At night they will be locked up, nobody will be perusing your notes. They will be secured and at the end of the trial you can take home or you can have it shredded. Either one, so those are your notes for your own use. And I will give instructions at the end. So somebody that did not take notes the whole trial that is fine, a note taker's notes don't trump a person who is a good listener, everybody is equal no matter how you receive information. What else. I think those are all of my instructions. For now is basically see you tomorrow at 1:00 o'clock. Go back to 3-c and get additional instructions. I want y'all to meet the SLED agents, they will go down there with you. I want y'all to know what they look like because they are going to be around you enough, I want you to know their names and they are all really nice folks. The bailiffs, you will get to know their names, please don't hesitate to ask if you need something and we will see what we can do, they will make your inconvenience less inconvenient. All right. Now, y'all go to 3-c and if y'all have any particular questions I will be around and I will be available to answer those, it may be that the Clerk sends somebody to ask me and I will send the answer back down. When you get back down y'all can ask questions like that. So without any further instructions to you. Y'all are free to go back down to 3-C.

THE COURT: Yes, sir. (Whereupon, a bench conference was held in the presence of the jury but out of the hearing of the jury.)

THE COURT: Madam Clerk, can you give the oath to the security team.

THE COURT: Y'all come up here and place them under oath to do their job diligently and fairly.

THE COURT: Thank you very much. This is your team of agents. And I am going to let them go down, y'all follow the jury down, how about a couple in the front and a couple in the back and go to 3-C. And instruct them on the parking and y'all may take them down and even show them. Okay. Y'all follow the agents.

THE COURT: We have got those couple of motions. I would like to do those after lunch. How about 1:00 for those motions. I am going to meet with the media informally to make sure we are on the same basis. I am not going to change anything but just sit down with them to make certain they don't have any other concerns. We will come back at 1:00 for the motions. Y'all stand at ease.

THE COURT: Let me see two lawyers. (Whereupon, a bench conference was held on the record.)

THE COURT: Tiffany Kent is a Juror, she reported that whoever she works for spouse works for the Public Defenders office. We didn't know that.

THE COURT: Yes.

THE COURT: And alerted Lisa a little bit ago. I want y'all to decide what to do with it, we can deal with it tomorrow.

THE COURT: Tiffany Kent.

THE COURT: Y'all deal with that.