Experts say finding fair, impartial jury for Ross Harris trial will be tough

COBB COUNTY — Jury selection is moving at a glacial pace in the

Lawyers began questioning individual jurors Wednesday, but by the afternoon they had only spoken with eight of the 250 potential jurors. They had planned to question 20 on Wednesday.

Jurors on Tuesday were given a 17-page document that contained dozens of personal questions. Some of the more shocking ones related to sex, pornography and the dating history of the potential juror. %

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[READ: 17-page juror questionnaire]
 
The questions stem from allegations that Harris was sexting underage girls and having extramarital affairs. Authorities also say Harris had researched hot car deaths and a child-free lifestyle.

Leanna Harris, who was married to Ross at the time of Cooper's death, divorced him just days before the trial.

Lawyers question individual jurors

The first potential jurors questioned was a substitute teacher who has five grandchildren.

He was asked whether he transports his grandchildren in car seats when he travels and his opinion on divorce.

At one point, the potential juror said he was leaning toward a guilty verdict.

“You haven't heard or saw anything that would impact that opinion that you walked in here with correct?” an attorney asked. "So it's fair to say, based on what you've heard about the case, you're leaning toward guilty.”

The potential juror responded “yes.”

[Ross Harris jury selection: Day 2]

Not surprisingly, most potential jurors say they’ve heard about the Harris case, but experts say even those who know a lot about the case could still be picked to serve.

“We don’t expect you to come in here in a vacuum,” said Assistant District Attorney Chuck Boring. “People are going to have formed an opinion and things like that. What we are trying to determine is if you can be fair and impartial."

Experts say finding fair, impartial jurors will be tough

The first three potential jurors made it clear that finding fair and impartial jurors will be tough. %

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One male juror, an IT guy like Harris, told the court he couldn't understand how anyone could leave a child in a car seat.

"There's a child who passed away in a child seat. This is the person who they think did it, and so I'm more biased to the guilt side coming in,” he said.

A female juror told lawyers she talked about the Harris case with her husband, and they thought about their daughter, who was 3 at the time.

"Just talking about her, you know, busy activities and what we do in life and it, it just bothered us a lot,’ she said.

She told the court she would try to be fair and impartial, but legal expert Esther Panitch told Channel 2’s Ross Cavitt that's not enough.

“Judges like to say well if you got onto a plane and the pilots announces, ‘Well, I think I can fly this plane,” how comfortable would you feel? So you have to think how comfortable the lawyers, the defendant and the judge would feel hearing that,” Panitch said.

Jury selection continues Thursday

Jury selection will continue at the Courthouse Thursday morning.

The plan at this point is to get through at least a dozen of the individual juror interviews and then let the attorneys start striking some of the potential jurors and see where they stand when it comes to trying to select a 12-person panel plus several alternate jurors in this case.

Cox Media Group