Potential Jurors

DENVER -- Timothy J. McVeigh watched intently from his seat in a federal courtroom yesterday as the painstaking examination of potential jurors began for his trial in the 1995 bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building.In a heavily secured downtown courthouse, the first jury candidates were questioned cordially but closely on topics ranging from the death penalty to the O. J. Simpson trials to the government's siege in 1993 on the Branch Davidian complex in Waco, Texas.They also were asked where they were April 19, 1995 -- the day a bomb tore open the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 and injuring more than 500. The blast was the worst act of terrorism ever in the United States.

TRENTON, N.J. -- Everyone knows what the prosecutors say happened to Megan Kanka.In the summer of 1994, they say, the 7-year-old girl was lured into the home of a neighbor with a record of sexual offenses against children, where she was raped and strangled. Her body was left in a pile of weeds in a park near her home in Hamilton Township.That story is well-known because her death almost immediately spawned a law in her name in New Jersey, as well as a federal law and laws in other states, aimed at notifying communities of sexual offenders in their midst.

The trial for a man accused of raping a 15-year-old girl behind Howard County's Central Library in Columbia's Town Center will be moved to Carroll County Circuit Court.Timothy Bryan Chase, 29, will stand trial in that county after Howard Circuit Judge Diane O. Leasure ruled that pretrial publicity prohibited Chase from receiving a fair trial in Howard. No trial date has been set. Last week, Leasure granted a #F last-minute defense motion to move the trial, saying an article published in The Sun was so detailed it could prejudice potential jurors.

The Maryland Court of Appeals turned down yesterday a convicted murderer's request for a new trial, saying that the dismissal of several potential jurors from his case was not racially motivated.The court, in a unanimous ruling, upheld a decision by Prince George's County Circuit Judge James Magruder Rea, who said county state's attorneys had other valid, race-neutral reasons for dismissing the jurors in the case of Peter Donald Harley.Harley was charged with murder and related offenses in the 1991 killing of Timothy Kidd, who was shot in the head when a drug buy went awry in the Nalley Road apartment complex of Washington Heights, said Assistant State Attorney General Gary E. Bair.

John J. Merzbacher's first criminal trial on charges that he sexually abused students started slowly yesterday, with the defense losing its bid to have potential jurors given a lengthy background survey.As the case finally was called for trial, nearly a year and a half after the former Catholic school teacher was arrested, the defendant was asked again to give his plea to the charges. His firm "not guilty" sent derisive murmurs throughout a courtroom peppered with former students who say Mr. Merzbacher raped and molested them over the seven years he taught at Catholic Community Middle School in the Locust Point section of South Baltimore from 1972 to 1979.

WALTHAM, Mass.--EVEN BEFORE jury selection starts, the O.J. Simpson case has fueled two dangerous misconceptions about jury trials.The first is that jurors often deadlock along racial lines. The second is that pretrial publicity destroys the impartiality of every prospective juror who follows the news closely. Neither of these cynical caricatures of jury justice is supported by the evidence.When it comes to race, jurors certainly are not perfect. The first Rodney King trial reminded the nation of all that can go wrong when all-white juries sit in judgment of black defendants or victims.

Some 100 prospective jurors filed into an Anne Arundel courtroom yesterday and were asked to write down how they feel about sex abuse and what they know about Ronald W. Price, the former Northeast High School teacher convicted of having sex with three students.The pool of jurors filled the Circuit Court's cavernous Courtroom One, where they were directed to complete a 28-page questionnaire as a first step in selecting a jury for the child sex-abuse trial for former Northeast teacher Laurie Susanne Cook.

Potential jurors for the trial of Northeast High School teacher Laurie S. Cook will answer a questionnaire a week before her November trial, in a move designed to speed jury selection.Anne Arundel County Circuit Judge Eugene M. Lerner yesterday granted a defense motion seeking the questionnaire.The defense wanted to query 100 potential jurors on issues of pretrial publicity and sexual child abuse to identify those who feel they cannot put aside what they have heard about the case or their feelings about the charges.

A judge questioned 42 potential jurors yesterday on their attitudes about race, the death penalty and other matters as a Washington man went on trial in the carjacking death of Pam Basu.Those selected will begin hearing testimony this week in the trial of Rodney Eugene Solomon, 27, who could face the death penalty if convicted in the Sept. 8, 1992, slaying of the research scientist.Dr. Basu became entangled in a seat belt as she was forced from her car and was dragged nearly two miles to her death as the assailants sped off. Her 22-month-old daughter, who was in the vehicle's back seat during the carjacking, was unharmed.

The Washington youth accused in the Pam Basu carjacking murder sought unsuccessfully yesterday to have the charges against him dismissed.The attorney for Bernard Eric Miller argued that his client's right to a speedy trial was violated because the trial was scheduled two weeks beyond the six-month limit for such proceedings.After a hearing, Howard County Circuit Judge Dennis Sweeney denied the request, saying he found no grounds to dismiss the charges."The length of the delay is really quite minimal, given the complexity of the case," Judge Sweeney said.