Video: What It Means to be a Sequestered Juror

OKTIBBEHA COUNTY, Miss. (WCBI) – The jury for an upcoming murder trial in Lowndes County is being brought in from Marshall County.  Those jurors will have to be sequestered for the duration of the trial.

All juries must follow rules set in place by the sitting judge. The main difference from a regular jury and a sequestered jury is communication with the outside world.

The notoriety of the case has a lot to do with the judge’s decision.

The jurors being selected for Wednesday’s upcoming trial are about to see what it’s like to be sequestered and why it’s important.

The purpose behind a sequestered jury is to make sure jurors make a decision on what’s heard in the courtroom, not on the street.

To make sure that happens, they’re cut off from the outside world.

“It requires that those jurors be kept overnight in a hotel, motel, where there is no outside entrance into the rooms, or there can be no television, telephone, radio, or newspaper allowed in that room,” says Oktibbeha County Circuit Clerk Glenn Hamilton.

Lt. Robert Elmore is over Oktibbeha County’s Court Security and he says today’s technology makes it harder to keep jurors secluded.

“Bailiffs will keep their cell phones in a central location, secured, and usually with a judge’s consent, give them a little time each night to call and talk to the family, but there’s usually people around to make sure they don’t discuss the case, or see anything about the case.”

Eyes are on the selected jurors 24 hours a day.

“When they are asleep, there’s usually two bailiffs around where they’re staying. There’s bailiffs with them when they go to eat. There’s bailiffs with them in the evenings when they go back to the hotel to stay. There’s people with them all the time. If they need something, they will let the bailiffs know,” says Elmore.

Only certain cases call for sequestered juries.

“Usually, they’re sequestered when it’s a capital case, which is where the death penalty is involved. The judges will make that decision and they will usually hear the motions and then hear where to go pick the jury to bring back for trial,” says Elmore.

The circuit clerk’s office handles the price tag that comes along with it.

“We always budget each year for a case similar to this, because of the unexpected, you know, because we can’t predict that far ahead, but in an event, we want to be able to pay the juror. We would have to pay travel and other jury expenses too, food, things of that nature,” says Hamilton.