 Judge Seeks Jury for Federal Murder Trial By Ed White Booth News Service Monday, January 21, 2002 Grand Rapids - Nurses, accountants, factory workers, farmers, teachers--it's time for everyday folks to step into West Michigan's first death-penalty case. About 350 people, from Kent County north to the Mackinac Bridge, are being asked to report Wednesday to the federal courthouse in Grand Rapids to fill out an 11-page questionnaire, the first stage in selection a jury for the Feb. 25 trial. "It's the largest we've ever called," said Ron Weston, clerk of the U.S. District Court. Marvin Gabrion, 48, is accused of drowning a woman in a lake in the Manistee National Forest nearly five years ago. Federal prosecutors, not Newaygo County authorities, are handling the case, a distinction that is turning this murder trial into a case for the history books. Shortly after taking office last year, U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft authorized the federal death penalty against Gabrion, which means jurors will determine whether he lives or dies if he is declared guilty of killing Rachel Timmerman, 19. Prospective jurors will be asked to answer 57 questions. The information sought by prosecutors, defense attorneys and U.S. Chief District Judge robert Holmes Bell is broad as well as detailed. How many people live in your house? What is the age of your children? What is your education level? Have you taken courses in psychology or law enforcement? What's the annual income of your household? Do you have a job? Please list your employment history over the last 10 years. Which magazines, books or newspapers do you read? Favorite TV shows? What groups or unions do you belong to? Ever been the leader of a religious organization or social club? Have you sought psychological services? If so, how would you value the testimony of a mental-health professional? Perhaps the most critical questions, however, appear near the end: Have you heard about the Gabrion case, and do you have an impression about his guilt or innocence? Finally, what are your view regarding the death penalty? "There are no right or wrong answers to these questions," Bell said in a script prepared for a video that will be seen by prospective jurors. He was referring to inquiries about the death penalty. "If this case goes to a sentencing hearing," the judge said, "both sides in the case are entitled to a jury that does not have its mind made up about the death-penalty issue before the hearing even begins." Indeed, anyone with a rigid pro-death penalty view will not make the cut. Not will someone who unequivocally opposes capital punishment. The goal is to find 16 people - 12 jurors and four alternates - who say they could impose the death penalty under the proper set of legal circumstances. "Some of you may wonder how the government can ask for a sentence of death, given that the state of Michigan does not have the death penalty," Bell's video script said. "The simple answer is that the charge...involves a federal, not state, crime, and that Congress has provided for death to be a possible penalty." The victim was in a lake surrounded by federal land, which gives the government a right to handle the case, the judge ruled last year. Prosecutors and defense attorneys declined to comment on the jury process. Prospective jurors won't be interviewed after finishing the questionnaire Wednesday. The next step for the judge and lawyers will be to comb through the answers--thousand of pages - and decide who should be eliminated based on the responses. By Feb. 11, Bell expects the pool will be trimmed to about 200 people. During that week, each prospective juror will enter the courtroom to be questioned by the judge and lawyers, a process that is likely to winnow the field to 100 to 150. Finally, the jury will be settled by Feb. 21, four days before the trial starts. "We're working to get a fair trial, " Bell said in an interview, "and my jury selection will be just that." The trial is likely to last at least 10 days. If Gabrion is found guilty, Bell said he would probably order a week-long recess before turning to the death-penalty phase, which has an entirely different set of rules and could be just as long as the guilt phase or longer. Bell said he's sensitive to the disruption that jury service places on people's lives. Nonetheless, he added, "it is often said that with he exception of service in the armed forces, there is no other duty of citizenship more important." Although the jury pool covers 22 counties in western and northern Michigan, more than half of prospective jurors in Gabrion's case are expected to come from the Grand Rapids-Holland-Muskegon triangle, simply because of population and the random selection process. In 2000, a Grand Rapids Press survey of 800 people in 10 counties found 62 percent supported the death penalty. among those who supported it, 58 percent said they had a religious affiliation. the roman Catholic Church is one of the strongest opponents of the death penalty, with one extremely narrow exception. "Only if all other means fail and there is no other way to protect society," explained Robert Marko, a moral theologian at Aquinas College. "A conscientious Catholic must want to believe the teaching is true and want to live it," Marko said. "Some people probably don't know the teaching. Let's be candid: Some people in our culture might not even consider it." The Christian Reformed Church has a broad position. It says Scripture gives government the right to carry out capital punishment. "If it exercised with utmost restraint." Bell, the judge, acknowledges the heavy burden on people who will fill the jury box. The death penalty, he said, "is the most serious and difficult decision any jury can be asked to make." PHOTO NEXT HOME If you have any information, Contact: Michigan State Police at: (231)652-1662 The FBI at: (616)456-5489 The Silent Observer at: (616)774-2345 Thank you for caring! |