The third day of jury selection for Jeffrey Wade Chapman’s trial is set to begin Wednesday at 9 a.m.  Barton County District Judge Ron Svaty said he hopes to have a jury selected by noon.
Two weeks have been set aside for the trial, including jury selection. Chapman, 33, is charged with the first-degree murder of 25-year-old Damon Galyardt in 2011.
The main courtroom at the Barton County Courthouse was filled with prospective jurors Tuesday as they were called from the room one by one for voir dire — the preliminary interview to determine their suitability to serve on the jury. As it approached 4 p.m., Judge Svaty prepared to excuse them for the night.
“Court and counsel want to thank everyone for sitting out here during individual voir dire,” Svaty said. He asked everyone to return by 8:30 a.m. today so they can all be through the metal detectors by 9 as the process continues.
“We think we will be done by noon,” he said. “We’re moving very quickly in type of case.” Svaty said he has seen murder trials where it took a week to fill an impartial jury.
Ending on a light note, Svaty reminded all potential jurors that they are not allowed to discuss the case with anyone, or to view or read any news on the subject. No television, newspaper or texting, he said. “No tweeting or twerking.”
While that got a laugh from many in the room, jurors’ use or misuse of social media such as Twitter and Facebook during trials is a serious issue. The chosen jury must reach its verdict based only on evidence presented at the trial.
The U.S. Judicial Conference, the policy-making body of the federal courts, updated model jury instructions about four years ago, and Kansas judges usually offer similar instructions. Potential jurors are told not to communicate with anyone about the case on cellphone, through email, Blackberry, iPhone, text messaging, or on Twitter, through any blog or website, through any Internet chat room, or by way of any other social networking websites, including Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn and YouTube.