Proof People Are Getting Dumber

**Pedro56** · 03-31-07, 09:42 AM

Juror never heard of Brown's Chicken murders
'I actually thought it was Brown's had bad chicken'

March 30, 2007
BY ERIC HERMAN Staff Reporter

The jury set to decide Juan Luna's fate will include a female Cook County probation officer and a man apparently too young to remember the Brown's Chicken murders.

Luna, 33, is charged with killing seven people in the 1993 robbery at a Brown's Chicken & Pasta in Palatine. He faces the death penalty. James Degorski, also charged, will stand trial later.

On Thursday, Luna spent nine hours in a stuffy jury room watching Judge Vincent Gaughan, prosecutors and defense lawyers grill potential jurors. Luna's bespectacled eyes darted from Gaughan to the potential jurors as they came in one by one, sitting four feet from him at a table.

Only two chosen so far

By the end of the day, lawyers had agreed on two jurors of the 17 interviewed.

Most who were questioned remembered the high-profile case. But the male juror picked Thursday said he knew nothing about it, though he had lived in Cook County his entire life.

"I actually thought it was Brown's Chicken had bad chicken. I had no idea," the juror said.

Some who were dismissed

Gaughan ordered the jurors' names be kept secret, citing security concerns.

The man picked Thursday appeared to be in his 20s. On his questionnaire, he complimented the lawyers' suits.

Asked about the death penalty, he said, "If there's enough evidence against the person, I'm for it."

The female juror is an immigrant with a master's degree in criminal justice administration from a foreign university. She's a mother of three and appeared eager to be picked for the six-week trial.

"I was like, 'Wow, what are the chances you were called?' I was honored," she said.

The woman said the death penalty was "an extreme option," but professed an open mind.

"The death penalty is very difficult. In very extreme situations, people do deserve the death penalty," she said.

During jury selection the prosecution and the defense teams each get 10 "peremptory strikes" -- the right to dismiss a juror they don't want on the panel. The judge may also dismiss jurors if he decides they cannot deliberate -- removing them "for cause."

Some potential jurors expressed strong anti-death-penalty views, with one woman saying, "I don't believe in taking someone else's life."

But Gaughan rejected prosecutors' motions to remove them for cause, forcing prosecutors to use four peremptory strikes. The defense used five.

The questioning made clear the case is etched in the memories of many Cook County residents. One woman who was dismissed said, "It was just kind of scary because nothing like that had ever happened so close to where I live."

'They confessed'

"I think he's guilty," she said of Luna.

Another potential juror, who was also dismissed, wrote on his questionnaire, "They confessed!!"

eherman@suntimes.com