Speaker 1: It's an overcast day outside Latrove Valley Law Courts as
Speaker 1: the jury has been impaneled in the case of accused
Speaker 1: triple murderer Aaron Patterson. The trial has now officially begun
Speaker 1: and the judge had a development for the jury. I'm
Speaker 1: Brooke Greebert Craig and this is the Mushroom Cook. So
Speaker 1: we've just come out of court for the first official
Speaker 1: day of Aaron Patterson's murder trial. It's a bit drizzly outside.
Speaker 1: There are about twenty five reporters in the courtroom. Laura
Speaker 1: was erin in there.
Speaker 2: Yes she was. She was seated in the dock today.
Speaker 2: She was dressed in a pink and white striped shirt
Speaker 2: with long sleeves. She had her glasses tucked into that
Speaker 2: shirt and her long hair draped over her shoulders. And
Speaker 2: can you describe a bit about the courtroom. Yes, So
Speaker 2: the courtroom here in Morwell today was packed with journalists.
Speaker 2: Like you said, there's a lot of wood paneling in
Speaker 2: this courtroom, about thirty seats or so, not including obviously
Speaker 2: the seats the jurors are sitting in and all the lawyers.
Speaker 2: And actually by the door, there's a whole lot of
Speaker 2: hand sanitizer and face masks.
Speaker 1: So what happens in the hearing today?
Speaker 2: So the jury was impaneled. We have fifteen men and women.
Speaker 2: That break down is ten men and five women. They
Speaker 2: will decide this case. But we'll go back to our
Speaker 2: makeshift podcast studio later and we'll talk about that whole
Speaker 2: process and what.
Speaker 1: Did the jury hear.
Speaker 2: So one thing that Justice Christopher Biale mentioned to the
Speaker 2: jury today was that the three attempted murder charges against
Speaker 2: erin relating to an estranged husband, Simon Patterson, have been dropped.
Speaker 2: He told the jurors those charges had been discontinued by
Speaker 2: the prosecution and said, in other words, those charges have
Speaker 2: been dropped and you must put them out of your mind.
Speaker 1: And Justice spill spoke to the jury about other things.
Speaker 1: What were they?
Speaker 2: Yeah, So today was all about the judge's directions. So
Speaker 2: these are like the instructions that the jury have to
Speaker 2: follow throughout the whole trial. One of the most important
Speaker 2: things he touched on was not doing your own research,
Speaker 2: making sure they're only deciding the facts of this case
Speaker 2: on the evidence they're hearing and seeing in court.
Speaker 1: Okay, Laura, let's head out of the rain and get
Speaker 1: back to the studio.
Speaker 2: Sounds good to me.
Speaker 1: So we're back in our makeshift studio after the jury
Speaker 1: impanelment went down today we went in it. But Laura,
Speaker 1: can you tell us a bit more about the process.
Speaker 2: Yes, for sure. So any jury impanelment will start with
Speaker 2: all the people in the jury pool coming to court.
Speaker 2: So in this case, the potential jury members have come
Speaker 2: from all over the Gippsland region Today at the Latro
Speaker 2: Valley Law Courts. They would gather in a jury pool
Speaker 2: room and then things get underway. The judge will ask
Speaker 2: members of the pool to come into the courtroom and
Speaker 2: on each seat in the courtroom will be a list
Speaker 2: of names. So this list is really important because it's
Speaker 2: a list of all of the people who'll be involved
Speaker 2: in this trial. So we're talking lawyers, witnesses and even
Speaker 2: to an extension, court staff, people who are going to
Speaker 2: be around and involved in this trial. It is really
Speaker 2: important that no jury member knows anyone in this trial.
Speaker 2: That's how the court can trust that these jury members
Speaker 2: will remain impartial. So the people in the jury pool
Speaker 2: are asked to look through that list and make sure
Speaker 2: that they don't know anyone. Once this process has taken place,
Speaker 2: the judge will usually give a short overview of the case,
Speaker 2: just so everyone in the room knows what the trial
Speaker 2: is about. In this case, my understanding is that they
Speaker 2: don't want anyone in the jury who knows too much
Speaker 2: about this case. So, for example, anyone who's listened to
Speaker 2: our podcast would not be encouraged to be on this jury.
Speaker 2: So once everyone in the room has been put on
Speaker 2: notice about these things, the judge will ask if anyone
Speaker 2: wishes to be excused.
Speaker 1: What excuses could the potential jurors give.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So, for example, especially given that the Gippsland area
Speaker 2: a lot of people know each other, someone might say
Speaker 2: I actually knew Heather Wilkinson or I knew Don Patterson,
Speaker 2: and that is definitely a reason why they should not
Speaker 2: sit in on the jury. But other people might say,
Speaker 2: you know too much about this case. I've been following
Speaker 2: it for a while. I don't think I can be impartial.
Speaker 2: So in cases, the judge can sometimes ask people to
Speaker 2: write down their reasons on a piece of paper and
Speaker 2: that gets handed up to the judge, or in other cases,
Speaker 2: that potential jury member might be asked to go into
Speaker 2: the witness box and make that explanation, the judge will
Speaker 2: then make a decision about whether or not that potential
Speaker 2: jury member should still remain in the pool. If they
Speaker 2: decide they should leave the courtroom, then that will occur.
Speaker 2: So once we've cut it down to the people who
Speaker 2: could be on the jury, the remaining people are allocated numbers.
Speaker 2: Those numbers are put into a ballot box and the
Speaker 2: ballot begins.
Speaker 1: So once their number is actually pulled out, does that
Speaker 1: mean that they automatically get to be on the jury.
Speaker 2: So a potential jury member will start walking towards the
Speaker 2: jury box and there'll be discussions happening in that moment
Speaker 2: between Erin and her lawyer. The only information they have
Speaker 2: to go off is what this potential jury member looks
Speaker 2: like and their occupation. From that, Erin and I llegal
Speaker 2: Ta get to make a decision about whether or not
Speaker 2: that person sits in on the jury. But they only
Speaker 2: can do that up to three times without giving a
Speaker 2: reason why.
Speaker 1: So can the jurors talk to anyone about the case.
Speaker 2: Then it's really not encouraged. So obviously, once everyone is
Speaker 2: impaneled on the jury, then they are the jury members
Speaker 2: selected to decide this case. So it actually is important
Speaker 2: that they talk amongst themselves, but during the empanelment process
Speaker 2: there isn't a lot of opportunity to talk and it's
Speaker 2: definitely not encouraged because we're just trying to focus on
Speaker 2: selecting those people to sit on the jury.
Speaker 1: And that means that the media can't speak to them either.
Speaker 2: No, that's definitely not allowed. That's both during the impanelment process,
Speaker 2: during the trial and even after. So in Australia, journalists
Speaker 2: aren't allowed to talk to jurors even once their job
Speaker 2: is done, and.
Speaker 1: Can the jurors then talk to their family and friends.
Speaker 2: Not during the trial. Usually the judge will be okay
Speaker 2: with them explaining to their family friends that they are
Speaker 2: sitting in on a trial and that the trial is
Speaker 2: expected to go for a number of weeks. But beyond that,
Speaker 2: in terms of the evidence in the facts of the case,
Speaker 2: they're explicitly told not to talk about that with people
Speaker 2: in their lives because they shouldn't be hearing those external opinions.
Speaker 1: So it's pretty strict. So then what's the penalty then, Yeah,
Speaker 1: the penalties can be pretty severe, and the jury members
Speaker 1: are told this once they're impaneled.
Speaker 2: They're told that if they breach any of these rules,
Speaker 2: including the rules to not do their own research, you know,
Speaker 2: no Google searchers, no reading the newspaper. They have to
Speaker 2: decide this case on the evidence they hear and see
Speaker 2: every day. And if they don't do that, if they
Speaker 2: get external information and they get caught, they could go
Speaker 2: to jail. Oh gosh, yeah, it's very serious. Jury members
Speaker 2: need to stay in line.
Speaker 1: So then what can we look forward to you tomorrow?
Speaker 2: Then? So, tomorrow are the all important openings. This has
Speaker 2: been a day we have been waiting for. We will
Speaker 2: be hearing from both the prosecution and the defense about
Speaker 2: how they put their case, and the jury will hear
Speaker 2: it for the first time too. The addresses lay out
Speaker 2: how the trial will run. The prosecution will walk through
Speaker 2: the witnesses that the jury members will hear from, and
Speaker 2: the defense will also get an opportunity here to state
Speaker 2: their case.
Speaker 1: And once again we will be covering that proceedings right.
Speaker 2: Yes, so you and I will be at court tomorrow.
Speaker 2: We will be running a live blog on our website
Speaker 2: to make sure our readers are up to date with
Speaker 2: all the information that the jury is hearing. But then
Speaker 2: once the proceedings are done, you and I will jump
Speaker 2: back here in our makeshift podcast studio and record an
Speaker 2: episode for our listeners.
Speaker 1: To stay across all our coverage, head to the mushroomcook
Speaker 1: dot com dot au