6News Lawrence: Jury selection begins in Murray trial

Jury selection begins in Murray trial

Monday, February 14, 2005

Jury selection is underway this morning at Douglas County District Court in the trial of a Kansas State University professor charged with murdering his ex-wife.

As of 11 a.m., 12 of a pool of roughly 30 jurors had been dismissed so far, either because of personal circumstances or because they said they couldn't keep an open mind about the Thomas E. Murray case. More may be dismissed in coming hours.

This afternoon, more potential jurors will be brought in, sworn and questioned. The process will continue until there are 45 jurors left who say they can keep an open mind about the case and don't have other grounds to be dismissed.

Then prosecutors and defense attorneys will each strike an equal number of jurors for strategic reasons, leaving 12 jurors and 3 alternates.

Murray is charged in the stabbing and beating death of Carmin D. Ross in November 2003 at her home northwest of Lawrence. Trial is expected to last four to six weeks.

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For more on this story, see the 6News reports at 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. on Sunflower Broadband's channel 6 and pick up a copy of Tuesday's Journal-World.

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