Just over half of the new group of prospective jurors who reported today for jury selection in the second Cheshire home invasion trial were excused.
A source in the courtroom in New Haven Superior Court said no additional jurors were selected Wednesday for the trial of Joshua Komisarjevsky.
Komisarjevsky faces the death penalty for the triple murder case of Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her two daughters in 2007.
His co-defendant, Steven Hayes, 47, was convicted in a separate trial in 2010 and is on death row.
Today marked two weeks since jury selection began. So far, attorneys have agreed on only three jurors—a social worker for the state Department of Social Services, a college student studying social work and criminal justice, and a doctor employed by the Yale School of Medicine.
The source said the new jury panel called today consisted of 45 individuals and 25 of them were dismissed.
Komisarjevsky’s defense lawyers used peremptory challenges Wednesday to excuse two jurors and the prosecutors used one. Two other jurors were excused by Judge Jon C. Blue.
The trial is scheduled to start in September and might last up to three months. In order to start the trial, defense lawyers and prosecutors must pick 12 jurors, six alternates and three backup alternates.
