Who gets to be a juror? Panel selected for Lori Vallow Daybell’s ‘once-in-a-decade’ trial

“Do you recall when you would have last heard about the case in the media?”

Seventh District Judge Steven Boyce asked the question to one of the potential jurors in the Lori Vallow Daybell trial, as the prosecution and defense searched for an unbiased and impartial jury. The jurors will decide whether to convict the 49-year-old Rexburg mother of murdering her two children: 16-year-old Tylee Ryan and 7-year-old Joshua Jaxon “JJ” Vallow.

“I’m sure it was probably last week,” Juror No. 1658 responded.

The juror was one of dozens who were dismissed primarily because of familiarity with media coverage. Most of them had heard basic details, like Vallow Daybell’s name or that she’d been found in Hawaii, but they weren’t overly familiar with the case.

After five days of jury deliberations, the prosecution and defense settled on an 18-person panel of 10 men and eight women — who all could devote their time to a projected eight-week trial and had little to no exposure to news of the high-profile case.

“People are certainly free to follow the news as much as they want and read all about every story they want to read,” Boyce said. “The question is whether or not that would affect your ability to serve here.”

Vallow Daybell was charged with two first-degree murder charges, three counts of conspiracy to commit murder and a felony count of grand theft for allegedly continuing to collect Social Security benefits on behalf of her children.

The jurors will determine whether Vallow Daybell murdered her children and conspired to kill her husband Chad Daybell’s then-wife Tammy Daybell. The 12 jurors and six alternates will return to the Ada County Courthouse at 8:30 a.m. Monday as opening statements begin.

How the jury was selected

Before the jury panel was selected, 1,800 people were called for jury duty. Those potential jurors were summoned to the Ada County Courthouse and asked to fill out a 20-page questionnaire.

Some of them were told to appear at the Ada County Courthouse starting Monday. Over the next four days, more than 150 potential jurors were questioned by Boyce, attorneys from Vallow Daybell’s defense team and the prosecution.

After questioning, 42 jurors, plus a few backups, remained. By early Friday, 45 people were whittled down to the 18-person panel. The roughly 120 people who weren’t selected to be on the jury were mainly dismissed for two reasons: the length of the trial’s potential impact on their lives and bias from media coverage.

Northeastern criminal justice and law professor Daniel Medwed told the Statesman by phone that in these high-profile cases, in which steps have already been taken to limit publicity — such as moving the case to Ada County — the priority would be not to eliminate jurors who heard about the case but to find people who can “put aside what they’ve read and keep an open mind.”

He said the jury selection process, especially in high-profile cases, is critical because appeals are more likely, and judges don’t want the decision reversed later for “having an imperfect jury.”

Medwed said he’d be surprised if the judge could find 18 people who had never heard of the case.

“You don’t want that person who’s already decided” on whether the defendant’s guilty, he said. “But you don’t necessarily want someone who has lived under a rock and isn’t aware of what’s happening in the community. So it’s kind of a delicate balance from the judge’s perspective.”

Judge Hippler talks Ada County Courthouse logistics

The Ada County Courthouse isn’t immune to disruptions. They dealt with a significant backlog in recent years after the COVID-19 pandemic paused some criminal jury trials and halted civil trials, which started up again in August.

Fourth District Administrative Judge Steven Hippler in an interview with Statesman said high-profile trials, like Vallow Daybell’s, “highlight” and “enhance” the issues they were already dealing with.

“These are generational cases or once-in-a-decade kind of cases, where we have this length of trial with this much media interest — and they just take a lot of resources,” Hippler said.

Hippler said he doesn’t expect the Vallow Daybell trial to substantially affect the court’s backlog, but he said it will affect the administration’s resources.

“When you’re watching the picture of the courtroom, I kind of equate it to a duck on the water, right?” Hippler said. “Things look fairly calm, but there’s a lot going on behind the scenes to make that happen.”

While the Vallow Daybell trial is only occupying a single courtroom, Hippler said space is a concern.

Administrators have kept other courtrooms available in case Boyce needs to conduct any breakout sessions, he said, and the public hearing room is being occupied by reporters and members of the public who are watching the trial through a live stream.

“A lot of the concerns that Judge Hippler brought up are things that we deal with on a daily basis — irrespective of this trial,” Trial Court Administrator Sandra Barrios told the Statesman. Barrios’ office, which oversees jury services, transcripts, audio and public records, is handling any of the administrative tasks for the district, including increased responsibilities during the Vallow Daybell trial.

Barrios said she’s “extremely appreciative” of the collaboration between different departments, which allowed administrators to accommodate people within the public hearing room.

Hippler said he asked three judges to reschedule their criminal trials, since there wasn’t enough space to accommodate all of the trials, which isn’t uncommon. There are 28 courtrooms at the Ada County Courthouse — but only 12 of those courtrooms are able to handle a jury trial.

Even fewer courtrooms can handle felony cases. Hippler said some of the 12 courtrooms that are set up with a jury box can only accommodate six jurors — the number of jurors needed for misdemeanors cases.

But Hippler said he doesn’t expect Vallow Daybell’s trial to disrupt the courthouse’s functions.

“This week has been remarkably well-conducted,” he said Wednesday. “The disruption to other core functions has been fairly minimal.”

Jurors get ‘very minimal’ compensation

Hippler said jurors get “very minimal” daily compensation. In Idaho, jurors get $10 for a full day of service and $5 for a half-day. In Idaho, employers are not required to pay their employees for jury duty, though employees are protected from losing their jobs.

A male juror during Monday’s jury selection said his employer wouldn’t pay him more than two weeks of paid vacation, even though the jury trial could last two months. He was dismissed.

One juror told the court that if she gave her employer the $5 to $10 she received for jury duty, she’d continue receiving her salary. Hippler in an interview applauded the juror’s employer.

“That’s a really great civically minded employer who’s willing to take the hit financially for their employee being gone to serve on jury duty,” Hippler said. “It’s not many that do that, but it’s certainly appreciated.”

Hippler added that in longer jury trials, like Vallow Daybell, jurors are typically retirees, stay-at-home parents, or people who work for those “civically minded” companies. But he said he believes they are still able to get a good cross-section of jurors.

Medwed said that people “who are on the margins” of society are likely left out of a lot of jury selection processes, because low-income people and employees with demanding jobs might be unable to miss work for differing reasons.

But Medwed added that even if jurors are often people with more time and resources, they can still make up a fair, impartial jury.

“This is just a problem that’s inherent in jury selection generally, because who has the financial means to take off work for two months?” Medwed said.