Lassonde is accused of having killed Serge Dubois at the beginning of July 2021. His jury was chosen Monday morning by Superior Court judge Claude Villeneuve, Crown prosecutor Me Stéphanie Landry and lawyers for the accused. Thus, eight men and six women will judge the evidence.
To select from the approximately 200 candidates, the clerk drew at random from the numbers of candidate jurors who appeared in turn before the judiciary. Once in court, citizens had to be sworn in, name themselves, and list their age and occupation.
On Monday, Judge Villeneuve asked all the candidates “is a person who uses hard drugs more likely to commit murder?” Citizens who answered in the affirmative were almost automatically excluded, since the judge wanted people with open minds and without prejudice. Five citizens were excluded from the process for this reason.
Furthermore, people representing certain professions such as firefighters, notaries and police officers were automatically released. Four candidates with criminal records were also rejected. Students were also exempted so as not to jeopardize their session, as were three other citizens for professional reasons.
Two people were exempted for family reasons and another man got away with it because his partner was over 65, which is a good reason according to the law.
-A 64-year-old cashier was exempted because she was “too stressed” and a 58-year-old clerk who went to school with victim Serge Dubois had to pass.
The judge will continue this morning with his instructions to the jury and the Crown will make its opening statement later on Monday.
Canada
