Jury selection continues in Bismarck in the second murder trial against Moe Gibbs. The former Barnes County jailer is accused of killing Valley City State University student Mindy Morgenstern in her off-campus apartment. The first murder trial against Gibbs ended in a hung jury in Minot. Donnell Preskey shows us how that affects jury selection in trial number two... Jurors were evenly split on whether Moe Gibbs was guilty or not guilty in July. Now attorneys have a second shot at picking 14 men and women to hear the case. (Ralph Vinje / Defense Attorney) I don't go into a second trial happily and I like trying cases. (Tom Dickson / Defense Attorney) I always thought it was harder, like playing the big game twice, like plowing the same field twice, just going over it again, don't have energy or enthusiasm as the first time. (Vinje) Always kinda depressing to go into it a second time, knowing you did a pretty good job the first time and with the other side now knowing what you're going to do. Attorneys say a second trial feels scripted, calling the same witnesses and making the same arguments. (Cynthia Feland / Asst. Burleigh Co. Attny) The only benefit is you can talk with first jury to find out what difficulties they had, sometimes jurors look at individual pieces of evidence that may not have seemed important to any individual prosecutor. And if attorneys did talk with jurors who sat on the first trial they may have learned something to help them this time around. They have a second chance to tighten their case and address issues the first jury had problems with. (Lloyd Suhr) It gives you an opportunity to improve your presentation of the case, you realize first trial ended in hung jury and move past that and look at it as a new plate of jurors. Suhr says he also focuses more on jurors attitudes and behaviors when picking a second jury... Digging deeper into their answers looking for 12 people who don't have their minds made up. (Tom Dickson / Defense Attorney) There's pressure on prosecution and defense to win, there's a lot at stake here for everybody and the public needs a verdict one way or another at the end of this case. In Bismarck, Donnell Preskey, KXNews. Attorneys will whittle the jury pool down to 14 people 12 jurors and two alternates.
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Added: Dec 16, 2007 |
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