Jury selection in murder trial often complex

Web posted October 10, 1999

 Trial could be moved or postponed

By Greg Rickabaugh
South Carolina Bureau

AIKEN -- When jury selection begins this week in the capital murder trial of David Mark Hill, attorneys will divide potential jurors into three categories.

There will be those who don't believe in the death penalty, those who believe any convicted murderer should receive a death sentence and those who can weigh the evidence with fairness and impartiality before considering a verdict.

Only the third group will survive to decide the fate of a man's life.

Defense attorneys ``are wanting to make sure that there isn't a jury in there that is predisposed to kill the accused,'' said James Huff, a North Augusta attorney experienced in capital murder cases.

``The state's wanting to make sure that there are jurors there that aren't predisposed to give him a life sentence,'' he said.

By law, the judge is required to automatically exclude jurors who can't be fair and impartial. After they eliminate those, the rest of jury selection is left to the prosecution and defense attorneys to find the little nuances about jurors that make them more favorable to their particular side.

That's a tricky process that requires a little experience and a bit of magic, Mr. Huff said.

``It's a little bit of psychology, instinct, intuition and hocus-pocus,'' he said. ``You could explore areas of religious affiliation, political association, community involvement or family history.''

Attorneys may ask several questions once a juror is sworn and placed in the hot seat:

Have you or a family member ever been convicted of a crime? What is your employment history? Do you know anyone who has lost a loved one to a homicide? Have you ever worked in law enforcement?

After questioning, attorneys may decide to keep the juror or excuse him from the panel. Each side is allowed a limited number of passes.

Of course, the questioning process can make jury selection last seemingly forever. But some attorneys, like Mr. Huff, believe the process is the most important part of a death penalty trial. An attorney can either win or lose the case at this stage.

``In a death penalty case, I would say jury selection is as important as the evidence that is going to be presented,'' he said. ``And you need to catch the subtle meaning of that. The facts, the testimony, the evidence may show that a person is innocent. But the jurors that have been chosen may return a guilty verdict -- or vice versa.

``So the jury you select is at least as important as the facts, and maybe even more so.''

Capital cases are particularly complex because they are the only cases in which a jury can impose a sentence after deciding guilt.

Jurors first decide a defendant's guilt or innocence. If they find the defendant guilty of first-degree murder, then they decide whether the defendant lives or dies. Because jurors play such a vital role, and because a person's life is in the balance, attorneys are reluctant to rush the jury selection process.

Circuit Judge Marc Westbrook, who will preside over the Hill trial, said there is no way to tell how long the process will last. Attorneys involved in a recent capital murder case in Dillon County expected to take as much as three weeks. They needed only four days.

``There's just no way of telling,'' the judge said.

Trial could be moved ot postponed If attorneys find this week that too many of the jurors are familiar with the case because of pretrial publicity, Judge Marc Westbrook could order a change of venue. The trial would be postponed until an unbiased jury could be found from another county. Then the judge either would transport the jury to Aiken County for trial or hold the trial in that county.

A competency hearing for Mr. Hill is set for Oct. 18, a week after jury selection starts. If the judge decides evidence exists that Mr. Hill is not competent to understand the charges against him and assist in his defense, Mr. Hill could be held until he is ruled competent. The trial would be on hold indefinitely.

When opening statements eventually get under way, Ms. Morgan is expected to lay out the case as gathered by investigators and police:

Police say Mr. Hill was angry because DSS had stepped in and taken into custody the Hills' three children. That action came after his wife, Jacqueline Hill, got into an accident while riding with two of them and an officer charged her with driving under the influence and child endangerment.

On Sept. 16, 1996, police say, Mr. Hill barged into the DSS office, grabbed Mrs. Curry, the first person he saw, and forced her to take him to Mr. Riddle, the caseworker handling his family's case. Mr. Hill shot both, police say, then shot Mr. Gregory when the caseworker walked into a nearby bathroom as Mr. Hill was washing up. Police say he also assaulted Annette Michael by shooting at her.

After the shooting rampage, police say, Mr. Hill disappeared. They used his smiling image from a DSS office surveillance camera to publicize Mr. Hill's features in the news media.

Police stopped searching for Mr. Hill at 2 the next morning, hindered by darkness and thick woods. But soon after daybreak Sept. 17, authorities found him about a quarter-mile from the DSS building. He was sprawled across railroad tracks, suffering from a gunshot wound. Police say it was his fourth suicide attempt that year.

Mr. Hill, the man who had once been a missionary with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and met his future wife working at Amoco Oil Co. in North Augusta, underwent surgery.

The killings were the first in the line of duty for South Carolina DSS workers. It was a devastating setback for an agency that had worked so hard to assist families, state officials said. Immediately after, security was tightened and the agency changed its unspoken policy of ignoring clients' threats.

Three years later, the building is open to serve the community, with tighter security measures in place. Whenever the trial begins, it is likely to spark strong emotions inside and outside of the courtroom, Aiken County Coroner Sue Townsend said.

``There'll be no winning in this trial. Everybody's a loser,'' she said. ``My hope is that we can only grow from it and learn from it. Surely, we can try to make something better from what happened.''

REACH Greg Rickabaugh at (803) 279-6895 orscbureau@augustachronicle.com.