Strategic selection: How the jury is chosen for the Brandon Phillips trial

It's comparable toa game show: there arecontestants, rounds, judges and instructions. But the stakes are much higher.

For the last two days, Newfoundland and Labrador Supreme Court on Duckworth Street in St. John's has been a beehive of activity.

Sheriff's officers, lawyers, court clerks and other justice workers moving swiftly towhittle 215 potential jurors down to 12 impartial and capable of fairly deciding whether 29-year-old Brandon Phillips is guilty or not guilty of first-degree murder in the death of Larry Wellman.

By the end of Tuesday, nine jurors five women and four men were selected using a process called challenge for cause. There are 75 people left in the prospective jury pool.

Phillips is charged with first-degree murder,armed robbery, committing an offence while disguised, assault with a weapon, and carrying a firearm without a licence.

He was arrested in October 2015, one week after Wellman, 63, was fatally shot at the Captain's Quarters Hotel in St. John's.

Extra scrutiny?

Challenge for cause isn't used for every jury trial. In fact, it's relativelyuncommon.

It adds an extra level of scrutiny to the jury-selection process, to weed out anyone who may have a preconceived notion aboutthe case, that could affect their impartiality.

"That bias could be because of publicity. It can bebecauseof the ethnic or racial overtones that might be in the case or it can be because of the nature of the offence," defence lawyer Bob Simmondstold CBC Radio's On The Go.

"There were a lot of publicity on this (Phillips) trial."

It was used in the 2015 second-degree murdertrial ofPhilip Pynn and Lyndon Butler, and saw sheriff's officers hand out jury summons on the streets in downtown St. John's in order to get a full jury that was to everyone's satisfaction.

Coincidentally, the same defence lawyers who represented Butler, who was acquitted on all counts, and Pynn, who was convicted of manslaughter,are representing Phillips.

Justice Valerie Marshall has put a publication ban on the questions to the jury and their answers.

Here's how it works:

Two people from the jury pool are selected as "triers" and will play a large role in selecting the jury.

One by one, people enter the witness box and answer questions as read to them by the Crown and defence.

The triers then decide if that person is acceptable or not, based on their answers.

In addition, both the Crown and defence have 22 chances to strike down or challenge a prospective juror until they're left with 14 people (including two alternates).

"Itturns out to be a very long process sometimes as we're seeing in this," Simmonds said.

"But a process that's vitally, vitally important if we want to ensure the accused person is getting an unbiased, fair trial by 12 citizens."

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ReadCBCNL's previous coverage of thetrial:

• Day 1: Brandon Phillips jury selection begins: What you need to know
• Day 2:Jury taking shape for trial of Brandon Phillips, accused in Captain's Quarters killing