Jurors

The jury that is set to begin hearing evidence against Phil Spector this week includes panelists with knowledge of guns and suicide, two issues at the heart of the music icon's murder retrial. According to jury questionnaires made public Monday, six panelists have fired weapons at a gun range or during military service and four keep weapons in their residences. Spector, 68, is accused in the 2003 fatal shooting of actress Lana Clarkson at his Alhambra mansion.

Come February, the red-brick Rockingham County Courthouse, one of New Hampshire's busiest, will arraign criminal suspects, process legal motions and otherwise deal with murders, mayhem and contract disputes. What it won't do is hold jury trials. The economic storm has come to this: Justice is being delayed or disrupted in state courtrooms across the country. Financially strapped New Hampshire has become a poster child for the problem.

A day after a Pasadena jury convicted Michael Goodwin of murder in the deaths of racing legend Mickey Thompson and his wife, jurors said they had no problem reaching guilty verdicts, despite a lack of physical evidence tying the defendant to the murder scene. "There was never anybody that said, 'No way, there's no way,' " said Mark Matthews, 52, the jury foreman. "We never had to convince anybody that he was guilty. We only had to make sure we were following the law correctly."

Jury selection will begin in March for the murder trial of music producer Phil Spector. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Larry Paul Fidler ordered 300 prospective jurors to report March 19 for the anticipated three-month-long trial. Spector, 67, faces a possible life prison sentence if he is convicted of killing Lana Clarkson, 40, in 2003. Clarkson, an actress who also worked at the House of Blues in West Hollywood, was shot to death at Spector's house after leaving the club with him.

Seven critics of the Bush administration and the Iraq war were approved as potential jurors in the perjury trial of former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby after they said they could set those feelings aside. But two members of the jury pool were dismissed when they said their strong opposition to the administration might color their deliberations in the CIA leak trial.

A jury was selected Monday to hear the case against former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, who is charged with obstructing a federal probe into the disclosure of a CIA operative's identity. Culminating four days of questioning by lawyers and a judge that often exposed potential panelists' anti-Bush sentiments, 12 jurors and four alternates were selected to hear the case of Libby, 56, the one-time chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney. U.S. District Judge Reggie B.

A juror was dismissed Monday from hearing the perjury and obstruction case against I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, but the judge allowed the panel to continue deliberations with 11 members. U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton discharged the juror, a former art museum curator, after the woman acknowledged being exposed to information about the case during the weekend, when court was not in session.

Jurors in the perjury trial of ex-White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby expect to deliberate into next week. They asked U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton for a dictionary and more office supplies and asked to leave early today for the weekend. Walton denied the request for the dictionary but told jurors they could take off at 2 p.m. "So I assume they will not have a verdict tomorrow either," Walton told lawyers Thursday as jurors finished their seventh day of deliberations.

Jurors completed their ninth day of deliberations without a verdict in the perjury trial of ex-White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, but before finishing they asked three more questions about one charge. The jurors were told they would get answers when they resumed work today. The note with the jury's latest questions was not made public.

There was a "tremendous amount of sympathy" for I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby among the 11 jurors deciding his fate. According to one panel member, some believed he was being made a "fall guy" for his White House superiors. But when it got down to the basic question facing the jury, there was little doubt: Libby, they easily decided, was guilty as charged on four of the five counts lodged against him.