Columnist Jeff German: Prospective jurors must open lives

Tuesday, Oct. 12, 2004 | 10:56 a.m.

If you want to serve on the most publicized murder case of all time in Las Vegas, you'd better be prepared to open up your life.

That's what 180 prospective jurors in the Ted Binion murder retrial are doing this week.

Jury selection is a tedious process, but it also is one of the most important tasks in any criminal case. The outcome of a trial can hinge on it.

Before they even got to court this week, the prospective jurors filled out a 49-page questionnaire, detailing their family history, education, professional experience, hobbies, reading and television viewing habits, and opinions about society and the justice system.

The questions are extensive.

Do they own a gun? Do they belong to any neighborhood watch or victims rights groups? Have they ever served in the military? Do they have a bumper sticker on their car? Are they union members? Do they do volunteer work?

Are they churchgoers? Have they had any law enforcement experience? Do they have any pets? What movies do they like? Which Internet sites do they visit?

District Judge Michael Cherry, who has presided over many cases where questionnaires are used, says prospective jurors aren't obligated to answer questions that make them feel uncomfortable. And not everyone does.

But Cherry adds, "In my experience 99 percent of the people answer every question."

Most are willing to provide the information because they know their identities will be protected by the court, Cherry says.

This week members of the Binion jury pool are being questioned individually in court in an effort to seat 12 jurors and five alternates for a trial that could last six to eight weeks under the watchful eye of the news media. They are being identified by number, not by their names.

Though the goal is to select a group of fair and unbiased peers to judge Binion's accused killers, Sandy Murphy and Rick Tabish, the process is really a high-stakes game of chess between prosecutors and defense lawyers.

Each side is hoping to seat people inclined to favor its theory of how Binion died. Prosecutors have alleged Murphy and Tabish pumped Binion with drugs and suffocated him at his Las Vegas home in September 1998 to gain access to his casino fortune. Defense lawyers contend Binion, a heavy drinker and heroin addict, died of an accidental drug overdose.

Cherry says there's no right or wrong way to approach jury selection.

"Everybody has their own opinion as to who makes a good juror," he says.

Prosecutors favor people who are well educated and lead stable lives, such as someone who has held down the same job for 30 years, Cherry explains.

Defense lawyers, he says, like people who are skeptical of law enforcement.

But it is a complicated process in which many competing factors must be weighed.

There also are intangibles specific to each case that both sides consider in selecting panel members.

In the first Binion trial four years ago, which ended in convictions, it turned out that nine women, middle aged or older, and three men were selected for the jury. The presence of the mature women was viewed as an advantage for the prosecution, which planned to portray the then-28-year-old Murphy as a callous, gold-digging adulteress who lived in the fast lane.

The jury foreman also was a retired, detail-minded aerospace engineer who appreciated the methodical approach prosecutors took in presenting their lengthy circumstantial case.

The irony here is that, while the goal of opening up the lives of the prospective jurors is to ensure that a fair trial takes place, both sides are doing their best to gain the upper hand.

It's the reality of our system of justice.