COMMERCIAL APPEAL
Four jurors seated as trial of accused child killer opens
By Bartholomew Sullivan
Thursday, January 20, 1994
The 1,250 students in Corning public schools stayed home a third snow day Wednesday but most of the 100 potential jurors for the Jessie Lloyd Misskelley Jr. murder trial made it to the courthouse for the first day of jury selection.
By day's end, four had been picked - two women and two men - and Circuit Judge David Burnett said the selection process may be completed by Friday, with testimony expected to begin early next week.
Misskelley, 18, is charged with three counts of capital murder in the May 5 deaths of three West Memphis 8-year-olds. Jurors were asked about whether they could decide to impose the death sentence in the appropriate circumstances, and one woman was excused from serving when she said she could not.
Security was tight at the single-story courthouse, where courtroom doors were locked with handcuffs during lengthy recesses. John M. Byers, the father of victim Christopher Byers, had a hand-held metal detector thrust into his rattlesnake skin cowboy boots before proceedings began. Misskelley was led
from the courthouse Wednesday night in a bulletproof vest.
Family members of victims Michael Moore and Steve Branch also were in the courtroom, but only Michael Moore's family stayed for all of the proceedings.
All but a few main streets remained under an inch of ice covered with 5 inches of snow that fell Wednesday. In half-hour opening comments before questioning began, Burnett told the group that he had driven 98 miles from Osceola in "rather difficult conditions," and appreciated the efforts made to get to the courthouse.
Several homes in the town of 3,323 were still without power Wednesday, including City Clerk Tina Woods's house, where single-digit temperatures froze the water in a fish tank.
An Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reporter flipped his truck on an icy Ark. 135 south of town and had to thumb a ride to court with a local minister. The high reached 22 degrees by midafternoon, according to a local bank's display, and the whine of spinning tires on ice went on all day.
But it wasn't just the inconvenience of reaching Corning that kept prospective jurors less than enthusiastic about serving. Burnett took several minutes to explain to the all-white pool that he understood their anxiety.
"I know none of you want to be here," Burnett said. "However, somebody has to do it and we need your willingness to serve on the jury." The judge, a decorated Vietnam veteran, likened jury duty to military service and voting, adding, "all three of those things are what protect the freedoms we enjoy."
He said he is often asked by jurors with a busy schedule if they can find an alternate. " 'I've got a brother-in-law on public assistance, and he'd be willing to serve,' " he mimmicked. "It doesn't work that way."
"Some say, 'I'm not too well-educated,' but all we're asking for is people with good common sense . . . You don't have to be a mathematician - you don't have to read and write."
"You'll be paid the handsome sum of . . . $10," Burnett said with a smile. "Ten dollars a day if you actually serve and $7.50 for answering the roll call." He said he knew that the money would not defray costs of babysitting or lost wages, but said the fee was set locally, not by him.
At one point, Burnett said he wanted jurors to be under no misapprehension that the proceedings would be like television, and certainly not like People's Court, "although I wouldn't mind being paid like Judge (Joseph A.) Wapner is."
"I'm not saying it will be pleasant," he said, "but I think you'll find it interesting."
He said no one would be excused because he or she knew something about the high-profile case, saying it would be "horrible" to select a jury with no knowledge of what was happening in the community.
"This is the kind of case where people in town talk, in the coffee shop, in the barber shop, the beauty shop," Burnett said about the pretrial publicity. "I trust none of you have engaged in any speculation of that kind?"
Ten of the first 12 jurors questioned said they had read about the case and all had seen something about it on television.
Burnett dismissed one woman who said her strong views in the case would prevent her from being fair and impartial.
Burnett reminded jurors that they faced a $500 fine for not responding to jury duty. When, at 4:35 p.m., a second group of 12 was chosen for questioning and one woman was absent, Burnett asked for an explanation.
"Sheriff," he said to Sheriff Darvin Stow, "find out what happened to her. It's sort of like skipping out of school, and she got caught."
The defense team of Daniel T. Stidham and Gregory L. Crow of Paragould is using the services of a Little Rock psychologist, Robert M. Berry, in its selection of jurors. Deputy Prosecutor John N. Fogleman and Second Judicial District Prosecuting Atty. Brent Davis are being aided by Clay County Deputy Prosecutor Joseph Calvin.
