Jury Selection in the Trayvon Martin Case Gets Off to a Slow Start

By CARA BUCKLEY

Published: June 10, 2013

SANFORD, Fla. — The first round of jury selection in the murder trial of George Zimmerman began Monday, as lawyers from both sides sought to gauge prospective jurors’ exposure to the widespread coverage of the case and their sensitivity to the racial furor it unleashed.

Pool photo by Joe Burbank

George Zimmerman is charged with second-degree murder in the death of Trayvon Martin on Feb. 26, 2012.

Selecting a jury may prove to be the longest part of the trial for Mr. Zimmerman, 29, the neighborhood watch volunteer who has claimed self-defense in shooting and killing an unarmed black teenager, Trayvon Martin, in a gated community here more than 16 months ago.

Painstakingly, lawyers for the prosecution and the defense began questioning prospective jurors one by one, from a pool of hundreds, trying to weed out bias. They got through just four by day’s end.

After the prosecution and defense teams agree on prospective jurors culled from the initial round, which could last days if not weeks, a second round of questioning will begin. A final jury of six will be selected, with alternates, under the rules for trials of second-degree murder in Florida. The judge has yet to decide whether the jury will be sequestered.

The questioning began Monday around 2:30 p.m., averaging a half-hour for each prospective juror, after each had filled out a questionnaire, the contents of which were not made public.

The four who were examined Monday were asked questions including, “Do you watch the news?” “Did you read about the trial online?” “Do you watch Fox News, or CNN, or NBC?” “Do you realize that ‘C.S.I.,’ the popular crime show, is fiction?”

The prospective jurors’ identities were concealed, and they were referred to in court only by number, which brought moments of levity to the otherwise somber proceedings.

“I’m going to refer to you as B30, if that’s O.K.,” the state’s lead prosecutor in the case, Bernie de la Rionda, asked one man.

“I’d rather be 30 than be 65,” the man, who was retired, replied.

Another prospective juror said the only television she watched was on Bravo, specifically the “Real Housewives” series. Yet another said she subscribed to The Orlando Sentinel newspaper, but only for the coupons.

Mr. Zimmerman’s lawyer, Mark O’Mara, said in an interview Sunday that his greatest fear was that the jurors would make their decisions not based on evidence, but out of fear of blowback that could come after the trial.

Mr. Martin’s parents, Tracy Martin and Sabryna Fulton, looked on from the courtroom, after issuing a brief statement in the morning, saying the family was relieved the trial had begun, and asking for the community to “continue to stay peaceful.”

A few hours later, Mr. Zimmerman’s brother, Robert Zimmerman Jr., told reporters that his family, which is living in an undisclosed location, frequently received death threats yet was optimistic about the trial’s outcome.

On Monday, Mr. Zimmerman, who is free on $1 million bond, was also introduced to the prospective jurors, something Robert Zimmerman said he welcomed. His brother, he said, had been made into a “mythological monster,” and was instead “sensitive” and “very likable.”

Mr. Zimmerman’s wife, Shellie, who faces perjury charges for allegedly misleading the court last year about the amount of money she and her husband had available for bail, sat a few rows back from her husband. According to Mr. O’Mara, Mr. Zimmerman had put on some 130 pounds, rarely ventured outside, and traveled in disguises and body armor.

The killing of Mr. Martin, 17, on Feb. 26, 2012, created a furor after the police at first declined to charge Mr. Zimmerman, who claimed that he was jumped by Mr. Martin and was only defending himself. But community and civil rights leaders viewed the shooting as a malicious and unjustified attack on an innocent young man who was simply returning to the condominium development after a trip to buy snacks.

Although demonstrations are expected once trial testimony starts, only a dozen protesters showed up at the Seminole County Courthouse on Monday, several wearing T-shirts from the Revolutionary Communist Party.

Denying the defense lawyers’ request to postpone the trial yet again, the judge, Debra S. Nelson, ordered that the case proceed, even though she has not yet ruled on whether certain pieces of evidence can be admitted.

The defense wants certain “inflammatory terms” banned from opening statements, among them “profiled,” “vigilante” and “self-appointed cop.” The prosecution agreed not to use the terms during jury selection.

Also undecided is whether audio experts will be brought in to testify about whose voice — Mr. Martin’s or Mr. Zimmerman’s — can be heard screaming for help in an audio snippet of a witness’s call to 911 just before the fatal shot was fired.

In pretrial hearings, which lasted until Saturday, audio experts for the prosecution and The Orlando Sentinel said that the person screaming was likely Mr. Martin, while experts for the defense said the identity of the screamer could not be determined, in part because of the quality of the clip.

Jury selection resumes Tuesday.

A version of this article appeared in print on June 11, 2013, on page A10 of the New York edition with the headline: Jury Selection in the Trayvon Martin Case Gets Off to a Slow Start.