Here’s how high the stakes are in the jury selection that’s now under way in the Joseph Duncan case: If just one juror objects in any of three different votes, Duncan would be spared the death penalty. That’s what happened in the case of Zacarias Moussaoui, the so-called “20th hijacker” from the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. He’s serving a life sentence without possibility of release at the federal Supermax prison in Colorado, after a single juror opposed the death penalty on the final vote in his federal terrorism trial.

Federal juries have reached the life-or-death decision point in 182 cases since 1988, according to the Federal Death Penalty Resource Counsel Project. Those juries chose life twice as often as death – 121 life sentences, compared to 61 death sentences. Just three executions have taken place since 1988 under the federal death penalty.

“The idea is if there’s any doubt about imposition of the death penalty, the procedures should be designed to prevent its imposition,” said Richard Seamon, associate dean and professor of law at the University of Idaho. “Because of these stacked-up unanimity requirements, it really does just take one person to block the death sentence.” Because of that, Seamon said, the jury selection process is “critical, it’s absolutely critical.” You can read my full story here at spokesmanreview.com.

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