The first jurors who will hear the Luka Magnotta murder trial have been selected.
Five people were sworn in Tuesday as the Crown and defence vetted potential candidates in a Montreal courthouse.
Among the jurors are a woman works in an auto parts shop and another woman who is an assistant manager in a store, CTV Montreal's Bureau Chief Genevieve Beauchemin reported Tuesday from the courthouse. A man who was selected early Tuesday afternoon works in cleaning.
The court will continue screening candidates, whittling down the pool until it has selected 12 jurors and two alternates who are all bilingual in English and French.
During the selection process Tuesday, each potential juror was questioned to see if they had already formed an opinion about the high-profile case, whether they thought they could handle hearing the gruesome evidence and testimony, and if they were bilingual in both languages.
Selecting jurors that meet all the criteria has proved to be a challenging task. Over the past week, hundreds of potential jurors were granted exemptions because they were not adequately proficient in English and French.
While the trial will be conducted mostly in English, many witnesses will testify in French.
Roughly 300 candidates remain from the initial pool of 1,600 who were summoned last week.
Magnotta has pleaded not guilty to five charges in connection with the 2012 death and dismemberment of Chinese student Lin Jun. The charges include:
- First-degree murder;
- Committing an indignity to human remains;
- Publishing obscene material;
- Mailing obscene material;
- Criminal harassment of Prime Minister Stephen Harper and other members of Parliament.
The trial is scheduled to start on Sept. 22.
