Boston bombing suspect's jury selection inches forward

Jury selection in the Boston Marathon bombing case is taking longer than usual for a federal case, but it's proceeding amid defense claims that a fair trial will be impossible in Boston.

That was the message in an order today from Judge George O'Toole, who denied for the third time a defense motion to move the trial of 21-year-old bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev out of Boston. He also denied a motion to halt jury selection, which is now in its fourth week of voir dire, a process that involves the judge questioning potential jurors individually.

"The voir dire process is successfully identifying potential jurors who are capable of service as fair and impartial jurors in this case," O'Toole wrote. "In light of that ongoing experience, the third motion to change venue has even less, not more, merit than the prior ones."

The order marked O'Toole's first public assessment of the painstaking process that began with more than 1,300 potential jurors filling out questionnaires the week of Jan. 5. One after another, jurors have told of potential stumbling blocks, such as personal connections to marathon victims or certainty in their minds that Tsarnaev is guilty. Watching this process, observers have wondered whether relocating the trial might become necessary after all.

But O'Toole squelched such speculations in his Friday order, at least for the time being.

"There is no reason to halt a process that is doing what it is intended to do," he wrote. He explained that when potential jurors say on a questionnaire that they believe the defendant is guilty, that answer doesn't need "to be accepted at face value." It can be explored further in voir dire, which "takes time, and we have been taking it."

In an earlier motion, defense attorneys cited questionnaires in a bid to show that a majority of potential jurors already believe their client is guilty. But O'Toole rebuked them for citing and characterizing the pool of questionnaires in a public filing that he deemed "improper."

"It invited further public discussion of matters to be raised in the voir dire process, creating a possible impediment to the success of that process," he wrote.

O'Toole has questioned about 150 potential jurors so far in a daily ritual that involves sitting at a conference table with lawyers from both sides and Tsarnaev present.

The court expects voir dire could wrap up as soon as next week. That would usher in a third phase of jury selection, which involves giving each side an opportunity to challenge peremptorily, or effectively exclude, as many as 23 individuals from the whittled-down jury pool.

Because the jury needs 12 jurors and six alternates, the court needs to pre-approve at least 64 potential jurors prior to peremptory challenges. The process of getting to at least 64 will resume Monday, Feb. 9. O'Toole has not said how many of the interviewed potential jurors are still in the pool. The court has not set a date for opening arguments.