Jury selection for Brunswick doctor accused of plot to kill wife

By

Posted 3:45PM on Tuesday, February 19, 2002

BRUNSWICK - The murder-for-hire trial of Doctor Carl Drury opened Tuesday with detailed questioning of potential jurors about whether they were biased because they know the physician or his family or because of news reports on the mysterious death of his first wife 13 years ago. The 62-year-old Drury faces life in prison if convicted on charges that he tried to hire a hit man to kill his second wife, Mary Drury. District Judge Dudley Bowen Junior refused to excuse jurors based solely on whether they were familiar with media reports dealing with the ase. Bowen noted Drury himself wanted to be tried in Brunswick, where he practiced medicine for 23 years and where reports of his arrest August 24 have been widespread. Bowen said, ``I'm not looking for a bunch of deaf, dumb mutes who haven't heard anything about the case. We could go to Wyoming and find a jury that has not heard anything about the case, but we're not going to do that.'' Drury attorney Ed Garland argued jurors would not fairly be able to put pretrial publicity out of their minds. Garland said, ``Publicity has a way of creating false thoughts and false memories.'' About 100 potential jurors reported for the case, of which 12 jurors and two alternates must be seated. The judge and attorneys had questioned 15 individually by early afternoon. Of those, three were excused. One man said he could not deliberate fairly because of news reports he had read. A woman, who said she has several relatives in law enforcement, admitted she gets angry when defense attorneys question the credibility of law enforcement witnesses. The third excused juror said he attends Sunday school with Drury's grown son and the class has prayed for the Drury family. Drury is charged with trying to arrange his wife's murder through interstate telephone calls and with providing a gun to an undercover federal agent posing as a hit man.