ARAPAHOE COUNTY - The third day of jury selection has begun in the Colorado theater shooting trial of defendant James Holmes.
An unprecedented 7,000 potential jurors were initially summoned in the case and the process of choosing a jury is expected to take months.
Judge Carlos Samour has excused a number of jurors so far, including one woman on Thursday who worried about getting panic attacks. However, when the judge asked her if it was the Holmes case that would cause the anxiety, she responded that it was actually just "life in general." Another juror was released when he admitted being a patrolman for the Aurora Police Department since his department investigated the theater shooting. Two others who received jury summons were excused because they are members of the families of shooting victims.
Samour asked lawyers for the defense and prosecution to use the "empty cup method" to signal a jurors' acceptability to them. So if either side felt the prospective juror should be excused from service, lawyers should turn a white paper cup upside down on their table. Upside down signifies the lawyer wishes to dismiss the potential juror.
Hundreds more people will fill out a jury questionnaire during the day.
Samour urged the two sides to continue to work together outside of the courtroom to "find the prospective jurors who are unsuitable to sit on this jury" and not "waste time" bringing members of the jury pool back for individual questioning "when they are clearly not realistically suitable ... " for duty in the Holmes case.
Holmes seemed to take only casual interest in the proceedings. He leaned back in his chair and gazed around the courtroom. He was wearing a pull-over, dark red sweater over a white shirt.
Holmes has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to charges that he killed 12 people and injured 70 others when he opened fire on a packed suburban movie theater in 2012.
If convicted, Holmes could face the death penalty.
(KUSA-TV © 2015 Multimedia Holdings Corporation with The Associated Press and NBC Universal)
