5 Prospective Jurors in Denny Case Excused After Questioning

On the first day of oral questioning of prospective jurors in the Reginald O. Denny beating trial, five panelists--all of them black--were excused Friday for a variety of causes ranging from their religious beliefs to medical problems to their concerns about the fairness of the judicial system.

In all, 16 panelists were queried by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge John W. Ouderkirk, prosecutors and defense attorneys about whether two black men accused of attacking trucker Denny and seven other victims can receive a fair trial. The attacks occurred shortly after not guilty verdicts in the first Rodney G. King beating trial in April, 1992.

Among the questions the prospective jurors were asked in extensive 45-page questionnaires--and again in person Friday--was whether they had made up their minds on either the Denny or the King cases based on videotapes of the incidents that have been broadcast repeatedly on television.

One panelist, a young female African-American, told the judge that she thought Denny’s attackers did not intentionally harm him and that law enforcement authorities are often guilty of racial prejudice. After prosecutors asked that the woman--who like other jurors was identified by number rather than name--be excused for cause, Ouderkirk asked her several more questions.

The woman was excused after responding to Ouderkirk that special standards probably should be used to judge crimes committed during a riot.

Two older black men were excused after explaining that their religious beliefs precluded them from casting judgment on others.

A fourth black panelist, a male nurse and former Navy corpsman who received an award for his service during the Vietnam War, asked to be excused because of a recent distaste he has developed for the criminal justice system.

When he filled out his questionnaire within the last two weeks, he had written that he believed that defendants Damian Monroe Williams and Henry Keith Watson could receive fair trials. “But now, no,” he told the judge. “I feel I’m in a different psychological mode now. I do question the justice system.”

The man did not specify whether his mood swing had anything to do with the 2 1/2-year sentences imposed on two Los Angeles Police Department officers this week after the second King beating trial. But he did say, when asked by the judge, that he did not want to participate in the Denny trial.

“I think based on the facts, I could deal with it,” he said. “Based on willingness, I really would not like to take part in this.”

A fifth black man was excused by prosecutors in their first challenge, for which they are not required to explain cause. Defense attorneys will be allowed to make their first peremptory challenge when proceedings resume Monday.

Each side can excuse up to 30 jurors without cause before a panel of 12 jurors and six alternates is sworn in.

At day’s end Friday, 10 of the 11 remaining potential jurors who had thus far been questioned in court were women. The racial makeup of the panelists was six white women, two black women, one Asian-American woman, one Latino woman and one white man.

Prosecutors said after the all-day session that the dismissal of five black panelists was only coincidence and that three of them clearly did not want to serve.

“It just happened to work out that way,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Janet Moore said. “We do not excuse people on the basis of color.”

About 64 prospective jurors reported to the downtown courtroom Friday, and 18 were excused without facing oral questioning. Attorneys for both sides agreed to excuse 12 of those panelists based on their answers on the questionnaires. Others were dismissed for a variety of hardship-related reasons.

Sixty more prospective jurors are scheduled in court Tuesday, and more than 100 later in the week.

The sensitive nature of the King and Denny cases became apparent repeatedly during the proceedings Friday.

In advising jurors about the meaning of a fair trial, Ouderkirk said: “A fair trial means that 12 people decide the case on the evidence in court and the law given by the court--and not on any outside consideration such as sympathy for a defendant or animosity against the defendant or because you think that events in another case were fair or unfair and this is some way to even the score.”

Williams’ attorney, Edi M.O. Faal, had objected to the words “even the score” because he said it told them to ignore the King case. But Ouderkirk said he would proceed because “if that isn’t clear in their minds from the very beginning, it’ll be too late when I instruct somebody that has a preset judgment . . . at the end of the trial.”