Parties finalize juror questionnaire in Knutson trial
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The parties in the murder trial of the woman charged with the 2007 murder of Anita Knutson finalized the questionnaire for the screening of potential jurors at a hearing in North Central District Court in Minot on Thursday.
Nichole Erin Rice, 36, Minot, appeared with her attorney Philip Becher at the hearing, where he presented several proposed changes to questions to be posed to potential jurors in anticipation of the long-awaited jury trial scheduled to begin on July 15. Some of the changes proposed by Becher were as simple as underlining certain text in the document or the use of different words from the most recent draft furnished by Ward County Deputy State's Attorney Tiffany Sorgen.
Becher's comments were keenly focused on tailoring the questions to add clarity to the legalese, and to avoid including a baked-in "prejudice" against his client, while still eliciting useful responses for both parties to determine if the potential jurors are good unbiased candidates to serve on the jury.
"We're asking very personal stuff. There's no way around that," Becher said. "I'm getting concerned with selecting a jury in this case. It's been very prominent in the media. There's been a TV show and stuff. And we could end up with people in the community who want to be on the jury to get involved. I think it would be helpful to ask people directly under penalty of perjury why they want to be on it."
The parties eventually whittled the questionnaire down to 49 questions, which will be circulated to an unspecified number of potential jurors beginning April 15. A final review of the questionnaire's results is scheduled to occur June 27, but Hagar indicated the returned questionnaires would be made available to the parties when they are received.