More potential jurors tossed into Unabomb pool

December 9, 1997
Web posted at: 11:54 p.m. EST (0454 GMT)

SACRAMENTO, California (CNN) -- Four more potential jurors were added Tuesday to the pool to hear the case against accused bomber Theodore Kaczynski.

There are now 78 potential jurors in the pool, but the number is expected to drop when the judge rules on lawyers' motions to dismiss some for cause.

Next week, attorneys will make use their peremptory challenges resulting in the selection of the final 12 jurors and six alternates.

One woman was excused Tuesday after saying that she felt evidence in the case would be violent, which would probably "stay with me for the rest of my life."

"I don't mean to sound like such a wuss," she said. "But I could imagine there would be photographs that would be etched in my mind for the rest of my life."

The woman also said the spot where one Unabomber victim died was a place she often shopped with her son, then 2. She remembered the 1985 death of Hugh Scrutton, who picked up a package left in an alley behind his Sacramento computer store.

"I remember thinking a child could have picked up the bomb. ... We used to walk by that spot," she said. "Years went by, and now it's in the news again."

U.S. District Judge Garland Burrell Jr. and lawyers on both sides agreed to let her go.

Kaczynski was in court Tuesday, dressed in a maroon sweater and slacks. He interacted often with defense attorney Judy Clarke, passing notes to her.

Federal law requires that jurors must be able to consider the death penalty and life in prison if they convict Kaczynski.

Jurors who are judged not able to impose the death penalty are excused for cause.

Kaczynski is charged with killing Scrutton and Gilbert Murray and maiming two scientists. If convicted of Murray's death -- the only one to occur after the federal death penalty was reinstated -- he could be executed.

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