Brief notes for those who missed it. I’m sure(!) others will chime in as well and correct me if I got anything wrong.
The defense lawyer is organizing his technical support team to include a lot of evidence. I believe he used the phrase “thousands of pages.” They are planning to do a check on Wednesday afternoon to make sure all the technology is going to work in the courtroom.
The prosecutor wants to exclude text messages from the victim to third parties. Exceptions will be considered on a case by case basis. They expect to call 15 witnesses for the prosecution, some less lengthy than others, encompassing 5-6 trial days.
They expect the same number of defense witnesses including two experts.
Proceedings could be slower than normal with the experts and possible technical issues. Maybe under two weeks for the defense.
The judge is going to tell potential jurors the trial may take three weeks overall, and could go into four weeks. He is planning to seat 16 jurors, so I’m guessing that’s 12 in the jury box plus four spares.
I believe the judge said they will be doing the jury selection via Zoom, and then for the actual trial, the jurors will be there in the courtroom. They are going to be tight on physical space in the courtroom since they still plan to observe social distancing guidelines. Observers may end up watching on monitors in an overflow courtroom.
When the judge was talking about space limitations in the courtroom, the prosecutor said there might be 2-4 supporters there on the LK side. The defense lawyer was not sure of the number for the MB side, but he said it might be up to 10 or so people. At that point, the judge said they would probably not all fit in the main courtroom, and some might end up in the overflow courtroom.
They also expect to have cameras in the courtroom from the news show 48 Hours. Barisone and his lawyer specifically agreed to that in response to the judge’s direct question on the subject.
Jury selection starts next Monday, 3/21, hopefully ready to start the trial (or maybe final jury selection?) the following Monday, 3/28. The trial should start at 1:00 PM on Mondays due to the judge’s schedule, and 9:00 AM on Tuesdays through Fridays.