OXFORD, Mich. – Jury selection will begin Tuesday for the involuntary manslaughter trial of James Crumbley, the father of the Oxford High School shooter.
Potential jurors will be brought into the Oakland County courtroom on Tuesday, March 5 to get questioned by attorneys and Judge Cheryl Matthews. The questioning is meant to determine if a potential juror is a good fit for the trial -- meaning they are willing and able to be impartial regarding this specific case.
The process of questioning and selecting jurors could take anywhere from one day to several days. James Crumbley’s trial will begin once all jurors, and jury alternates, have been selected.
Here’s a look at the process and what to expect this week.
First: Some background
The father of the Oxford High School shooter is set to stand trial on four counts of involuntary manslaughter charges. James Crumbley was charged in connection with the four students murdered by his son on Nov. 30, 2021.
The shooter’s mother, Crumbley’s wife, was also charged with the same four crimes. The couple was initially scheduled to stand trial together in January before the judge granted their late 2023 request to separate their trials.
Jennifer Crumbley’s trial took place first and ended in early February. She was found guilty of all four charges. Her sentencing hearing is scheduled for April.
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The two trials will have certainly contain some similarities, since both parents were accused of the same crimes. Still, prosecutors may introduce different evidence and witnesses at James Crumbley’s trial compared to what was introduced at his wife’s.
Explaining jury selection and ‘voir dire’
Potential jurors have already been selected from Oakland County for James Crumbley’s trial. His defense asked the court to move his trial to a different county, or to bring in a pool of jurors from a different county, but Judge Matthews denied that request.
It’s likely the court has summoned a large pool of potential jurors in hopes of successfully seating a jury. Potential jurors will be interviewed, and if they’re found to be biased, they’ll be excused by the court. Because this is such a high-profile case with so much information circulating publicly, the court may summon many potential jurors in case several people need to be excused.
The court did that for Jennifer Crumbley’s jury selection, but wound up not needing such a large number of potential jurors, prosecutors said.
During the jury selection process set to begin on March 5, potential jurors will answer questions from the judge and the attorneys related to their lives, their beliefs, and their knowledge of the case. The legal term for this process is voir dire, which essentially translates as “to speak the truth.”
Crumbley’s defense has extra ‘vetoes’
During voir dire, attorneys can use peremptory challenges to dismiss a juror without needing a reason. Peremptory challenges differ from “for cause” challenges, which means the attorney has a specific reason for believing a juror would not be impartial.
In this case, the defense and prosecution are both allowed five peremptory challenges under Michigan law. However, Judge Matthews granted the defense’s request for additional peremptory challenges.
The defense will have more than five peremptory challenges, though it was not immediately clear how many they’d have.
There is no limit on the number of for cause challenges that attorneys can make. Still, attorneys will need a good reason to excuse a potential juror using a for cause challenge, and will have to make it clear to the judge.
What a seated jury looks like
Potential jurors who are called, questioned, and prove they are willing and able to be fair and impartial during the trial will be included on the jury -- unless they are excused due to a peremptory challenge. Not all potential jurors who are summoned for this trial will be questioned.
The questioning of potential jurors will continue until 12 jurors and additional alternate jurors are selected for the final jury.
For Jennifer Crumbley’s trial, five additional jurors were chosen as potential alternates -- though the court did not know who the alternates were until the trial was over. It’s likely Judge Matthews, who also presided over Jennifer Crumbley’s case, will secure a similar number of alternate jurors for James Crumbley’s trial.
The jury will be seated, or complete, once all jurors have been selected and no additional challenges are made.
The jury selection process could last one day or multiple days. Once the jury is seated, James Crumbley’s trial will likely begin the next day.
For Jennifer Crumbley, the jury selection process lasted two days before the trial began.
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