Jury Selection Begins In Doc's Cyanide Killing Trial
PITTSBURGH (KDKA/AP) - Jury selection has begun in the trial of Robert Ferrante, who is accused in the cyanide poisoning of his wife Autumn Klein.
Before jury selection began Tuesday morning, Judge Jeffrey Manning rejected a defense motion to allow more juror challenges based on their concern that this weekend's domestic incident involving prosecutor Lisa Pellegrini might generate sympathy for the prosecutor and hinder Ferrante's right to an impartial jury.
The first panel of 60 jurors was questioned as a group before individual questioning began.
Among those 60, 49 said they had heard of the case, but only 18 of the 60 said they had already formed a fixed opinion of the case.
There has been plenty of pre-trial publicity about the case. And evidence like computer files revealing a Google search of whether the procedure administered to her in the emergency room would remove traces of poison.
The questioning of prospective jurors focused on whether they could be fair.
The 19th person interviewed:
"Kind of outrageous," he said. "He seems like a nice guy."
The 22nd interview:
They were asked, "What do you think you've heard?"
"Only thing that came to mind is the poisoning case," the person said.
The 23rd interview:
They were asked, "Can you put what you've heard aside?"
"Based on what I've read it would be almost impossible to set that aside," the person said.
That person was excused.
Twelve jurors have been selected to serve on the Ferrante jury. At least two are women. The first is a receptionist from Wexford, and the other is an unemployed former retirement plan specialist from Whitehall.
Four alternate jurors are expected to be selected in the morning.
Opening statements are expected to be delivered on Thursday.
Ferrante's attorneys had previously sought - and gotten - court permission to pick a jury from outside Allegheny County due to the intense publicity the case has received, but decided to go with a local jury without explanation. Attorneys on both sides are subject to a gag order and haven't explained or commented on that decision.
Ferrante, 65, is charged with lacing an energy drink with poison to kill his wife, 41-year-old Dr. Autumn Klein, in April 2013.
After several months of investigating, sources confirmed that Ferrante ordered cyanide from his lab at Pitt a few days before his wife's death. In July 2013, Ferrante was charged with poisoning his wife, and he was arrested in West Virginia by State Police.
Ferrante has denied that and said he's "devastated" by her sudden death.
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