Jury picked for Peterson trial
<p dir="ltr"><span>The upcoming murder-for-hire trial of Drew Peterson now has its jury.</span>
<p dir="ltr"><span>Both Randolph County State's Attorney Jeremy Walker and defense attorney Lucas Liefer have confirmed that the 12-person jury - plus two alternates - was picked on Friday at the Randolph County Courthouse.</span>
<p dir="ltr"><span>Liefer noted that the panel of eight men and four women, with two female alternates, was finalized around 4 p.m.</span>
<p dir="ltr"><span>"I feel good about how today went," Liefer said. "I'm pleased with the jury that we have. My partners have been behind the scenes the whole time helping me get ready."</span>
<p dir="ltr"><span>Peterson, 62, is alleged to, while an inmate at Menard Correctional Center in Chester, have attempted to find someone to "take care of" Will County State's Attorney James Glasgow - who prosecuted Peterson's 2012 conviction of third wife Kathleen Savio.</span>
<p dir="ltr"><span>Peterson is serving a 38-year sentence in the Illinois Department of Corrections for that crime. </span>
<p dir="ltr"><span>"It was a pretty diverse group from the county," Walker said of the juror pool. "There was a cross section from literally everywhere."</span>
<p dir="ltr"><span>The juror pool originally contained 41 people, but one didn't show up and two were dismissed before Friday's proceedings began.</span>
<p dir="ltr"><span>"One of them was an officer at Menard and transported Mr. Peterson to court yesterday for a hearing," Walker said. </span>
<p dir="ltr"><span>Walker noted that the other juror had sat on a jury in April for one of Walker's previous cases. That person worked at the courthouse and indicated that they couldn't be fair because they worked for the County of Randolph.</span>
<p dir="ltr"><span>As the day wore on, four other potential jurors were dismissed and one was later struck from the pool once the parties reached Peterson-specific questioning.</span>
<p dir="ltr"><span>That gave Walker and Liefer a pool of 33 candidates to choose from.</span>
<p dir="ltr"><span>"One of the dismissed had a vacation next week," Walker said. "Two others had pending cases.</span>
<p dir="ltr"><span>"One of them had a health issue with their wife in a hospital."</span>
<p dir="ltr"><span>The morning session contained general questioning to the jurors as a panel, while the afternoon session involved individual questioning of each juror.</span>
<p dir="ltr"><span>"There's definitely a quirk to it," Walker said. "There's always that juror that sticks out to you that you say you absolutely want that juror and ones where you say you absolutely don't want that person."</span>
<p dir="ltr"><span>Walker added that there are consultants who specialize in jury selection.</span>
<p dir="ltr"><span>"There's so much that goes into it, education, background, but for the most part, you just read people," Walker said.</span>
<p dir="ltr"><span>Opening statements will begin Monday at 9 a.m. at the courthouse. The State will go first.</span>
<p dir="ltr"><span>"There's a lot of information," Walker said on what happens during the weekend prior to trial from the prosecution's point of view. "Your prep work for the most part is done, you're just fine-tuning things.</span>
<p dir="ltr"><span>"Really, it's just polishing at this point."</span>
<p dir="ltr"><span>"Prepare, prepare, prepare," Liefer said. "It's going to be one of the most stressful weekends I'll have this year.</span>
<p dir="ltr"><span>"We've been working really hard these past few weeks getting ready for this thing. You have to be ready to go with the flow because there's things that come up that you can't prepare for."</span>
<p dir="ltr"><span>Friday's process drew a select response from out-of-town media outlets, with a much larger contingent anticipated for Monday.</span>
<p dir="ltr"><span>"I'm not there to do it for them, I'm there to do my job and if they take interest, that's the way it goes," Liefer said.</span>