The court has screened for hardship 100+ potential jurors since yesterday. Of those, only 39 were retained for the second round. Several of those were to check with their employers about pay. If they will not be compensated, it's possible they will be excused.
At best, we're looking at only 35-39 moving on to the next round. The number is far too small -- no doubt, some will be lost in the death penalty qualification round and some in the bias/media exposure round. As a result, the court is going to screen an additional 50 potential jurors for hardship, beginning after the lunch break.
Court is back in session. Judge says Juror #1098 would have to pay several hundred dollars to reschedule flights he'd mentioned in court. He is excused.
Clerk has sworn in additional potential jurors. The judge is introducing himself and the parties, taking care of the preliminaries with them (same as with the jury panel yesterday). One difference, he is asking whether anyone in the jury room was spoken to by anyone else who mentioned this case. There is apparently a show of hands since attorneys are approaching the bench.
Judge is going to let those jurors go. They were apparently infected by conversation about the case. Reports say at least a dozen raised their hands, so entire panel was dismissed. The judge will have a fresh panel of 50 brought in tomorrow morning, he says.
UPDATE: Apparently, based on what the judge says, one person (don't know if it was only this person) who was talking about this case in the jury room was a potential juror who is ALSO A POTENTIAL WITNESS IN THIS CASE (worked with TES). He/she was talking about being a witness and wondering if they would get called for this case. That person really should've known better. He/she cost a lot of people a lot of time and money.
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