By Jenna Sampson | Boulder Reporting Lab
Editor’s note: The Boulder Reporting Lab is providing daily updates from the courtroom. This is from the Wednesday, Sept. 4, report.
The jury pool was narrowed today from the initial 1,500 summoned to the final 16, including four alternates who won’t be identified as such until deliberation. The jurors’ identities will remain private for their protection, likely due to the high-profile nature of the case.
Many of the jurors’ clarifying questions have revolved around how exactly they are supposed to decide whether Alissa was insane at the moment of the shooting. They discussed, for instance, if he wasn’t diagnosed as schizophrenic beforehand, does that place less weight on the later diagnosis as a factor that day? Did the incident itself contribute to the diagnosis by triggering it or creating a bias in the evaluators’ conclusion? Additionally, they wondered whether he could be considered insane if he took premeditated steps to plan a mass murder, even if he was already schizophrenic. If he bought an assault rifle and tactical gear and then used them days later, was he insane that whole time?