What is the selection process in the death penalty case?

It is one thing to debate the death penalty at the dinner table or, as in my case, at a newspaper editorial meeting. It is quite another to be asked in the presence of a convicted criminal whose life is at stake whether you could vote for his execution.

“This is as serious as it gets,” an attorney for Eriese Tisdale recently told me and other potential jurors gathered in the St. Lucie County Courthouse. We nodded in agreement.

Tisdale was convicted of first-degree murder for shooting Sheriff Sergeant Gary Morales after a traffic stop in 2013. Now, after a long and arduous journey through the legal system, a jury has been selected to decide Tisdale's fate.

It is true, as one of the prosecutors pointed out, that nobody makes movies or TV shows about jury selection. Our three days Submit a requestas the process of selecting impartial jurors is officially called, were characterized by hours of boredom. But for the most part, the process was as intense and interesting as it was important.

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As expected, many of the questions from prosecutors and defense attorneys centered on views on the death penalty and whether we can fairly follow the law. As Tisdale, now 37, sat impassively at the defense table in a shirt and tie, several potential jurors said they could not sentence anyone to death, regardless of the circumstances. Others, recognizing that a strong opposition to the death penalty was a way out of jury duty, seemed to develop new moral concerns about the death penalty.

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When asked by Assistant Public Defender Stanley Glenn, I took the position I took as a member of the USA TODAY editorial board: “Because the death penalty is irreversible, it should be used very sparingly. However, in cases of heinous crimes and irrefutable guilt, it can be appropriate.”

Some of my colleagues on the panel disagreed, arguing that the government should not interfere in the killing and pointing out that there are racial disparities in the United States in the application of the death penalty. Life imprisonment without the possibility of parole, they said, is a fate worse than death—a view that seemed at odds with the vehemence with which Tisdale and his legal team argued for life imprisonment as an alternative to execution.

Despite the seriousness of the jury selection process, there were moments of levity. Fed up of waiting on hard benches in an empty courtroom one morning, some jurors slumped down on the padded chairs reserved for lawyers. As the saying goes, the brain can only absorb what the butt can take. “It would be very helpful if the seats were padded,” one prospective juror told the court.

Taking civic duty seriously

Other complaints have been about the paltry $15 a day given to jurors (which rises to $30 after three days). It should really be $15. one hourSeveral potential jurors agreed. Jury service should not be a way to earn money, but the compensation should at least cover gas and lunch money.

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One woman told the court she was a “psychic medium,” presumably already knowing what the verdict would be. Another woman mentioned she was getting married in a few days; District Judge Lawrence Mirman asked if she and her fiancé wanted to get married in his courtroom. A man who has a long commute and a boring job admitted, “I'd rather be here than at work.”

Nearly every one of the diverse jurors seemed to take their civic duty seriously, showing up on time (7:30 a.m. on the first day). One woman who didn't have a car took an Uber to and from court every day. Another had her mother come from Tampa to help with child care.

Just before 6 p.m. on the Friday before Labor Day weekend, the names of those who had made it to the final selection were announced, and I was dismissed. Maybe it had something to do with my journalism career, or the loss of my son to an opioid overdose (Tisdale was involved with drugs), or simply the fact that I had a doctor's appointment the morning the trial began. Whatever the reason, I was both a little disappointed and a little relieved.

What is the selection process in the death penalty case?

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What is the selection process in the death penalty case?

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