Potential jurors for the Aurora movie theater shooting trial will be asked to fill out a 75-question survey when they first report to jury duty beginning in early December, according to a new order in the case.
The questions will cover potential jurors’ knowledge of the case, their connections to those killed or injured, their attitudes toward the insanity defense and the death penalty, and numerous other topics. But the precise questions remain secret to prevent prospective jurors from researching their answers.
In issued Tuesday resolving lingering disputes over the questions, Arapahoe County District Court Chief Judge Carlos Samour revealed that the draft questionnaire contains 75 questions, divided into at least two sections.
“The questionnaire is lengthy,” Samour writes matter-of-factly in the order.
Jury selection in the case is scheduled to begin the week of December 8, and Samour is expected to summon in Colorado history in order to find 12 jurors and 12 alternates able to hear the case. People on the jury rolls in Arapahoe County have a roughly 1-in-90 chance of being called for the case.
The first phase of jury selection — in which potential jurors go in batches to the courthouse to fill out questionnaires, then return home and wait to see whether they are called back — is expected to take at least two weeks. The entire jury selection process .
Twelve people were killed and another 58 were wounded by gunfire in the July 2012 attack on the Century Aurora 16 movie theater. James Holmes, who has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, could be sentenced to die if convicted.
