Lawyers finalize jury pool

The first, grueling part is over. A pool of 65 potential jurors for Reinaldo Rivera's death penalty trial has been qualified.

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The weeklong process of individually questioning dozens of residents ended Friday afternoon in Richmond County Superior Court, clearing the way for final jury selection Monday. Testimony is set to begin Tuesday.

Mr. Rivera, 40, has pleaded innocent to 14 charges of rape, aggravated sodomy, aggravated assault and burglary. Prosecutors will seek a death sentence if he is convicted of one additional charge, murder, in the strangling of Army Sgt. Marni Glista.

This week, defense attorneys Peter Johnson and Jacque Hawk and District Attorney Danny Craig questioned nearly 100 residents called for jury duty.

To qualify, each had to be free of any fixed opinion on Mr. Rivera's guilt or innocence, and each had to be willing to consider and impose three possible punishments - life in prison with or without the possibility of parole, or death.

Of those disqualified, 15 said they could not impose a death sentence or life in prison with the possibility of parole. Ten were disqualified because they said they were convinced Mr. Rivera is guilty.

Mr. Rivera was arrested in October 2000 after a near-fatal attack on an Augusta teenager. In a hospital, where he was treated for an overdose of Tylenol, Mr. Rivera told investigators that he not only raped and tried to kill the teen, but also had raped and killed four other women: