Jury selection in Dennis Perry's case took up an entire week. Through a process called

voir dire, the attorneys learned about the potential jurors' views and backgrounds and eliminated

any who shouldn't be in the jury pool at all. We don't have the voir dire transcripts for Dennis

Perry's case, but we do have attorney's notes from the selection process. And those notes show a hard it would have been to get a jury that was completely

unfamiliar with the case already. Many of the potential jurors had seen the Unsolved Mysteries

episode. Several in the jury pool had attended Rising Daughter at some point in their lives. One had known

the Swains. Wanted to know the woman who'd played Thelma Swain in Unsolved Mysteries.

Lots of potential jurors knew other potential jurors, or knew the judge, or knew the attorneys involved.

In Dennis Perry's case, the prosecution was seeking a death penalty,

which meant that in addition to all the usual jury selection requirements,

anyone who made it onto this jury would first need to be

death qualified. That meant all the potential jurors who told the court they would not be

able to sentence Dennis Perry to death or eliminated from the jury pool. There was also one

potential juror who failed his death qualification for the opposite reason. He told the court that

should there be a guilty verdict, the death penalty would be the only sentence he'd be willing to impose. He was removed as well for being two pro-death. Though others in the

jury pool who had feelings that were similar to the was held by the two-pro-death juror would make

it through Wadilla without those feelings being detected, and at least one of them would make it on

to Dennis Perry's jury.

Other potential jurors in the jury pool may not have been so adamant about what sort of penalty should be imposed in this case, but already, before hearing any of the evidence,

they were already adamant about what the verdict should be.

One member of the jury pool told the court that if the defendant

was arrested, then he did it, and he'd have to prove to her his innocence. The court denied a motion

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