Angie Wilhelm / For The Post / aw319306@ohiou.edu

Victor Hodge (left), defense attorney for Ronald Hendrickson II, looks over paperwork during juror selection yesterday as Athens County Common Pleas Judge L. Alan Goldsberry looks on.

Jurors aren’t supposed to have any connection to the people involved in the trial. But that can be harder than it sounds.

During jury selection for the murder trial of Ronald Hendrickson II, Judge L. Alan Goldsberry dismissed two corrections officers who guarded him in jail, a nurse who treated him after the incident that ended in his ex-girlfriend’s death and a Hocking College alumna who once worked as his ex-girlfriend’s boss.

Those four people were among the 15 potential jurors excused during yesterday’s series of interviews. Hendrickson was charged last April with aggravated murder after his ex-girlfriend, Jodi Blankenship, was found stabbed to death in a house they shared with four others.

Jury selection ensures that a jury is as impartial as possible, said Patricia Gunn, a former Massachusetts assistant attorney general and professor of African-American studies at Ohio University.

During selection, lawyers play psychologist, asking potential jurors seemingly unrelated questions to decide if they can fairly examine the evidence, Gunn said. Through a mixture of experience and seminars, lawyers learn jurors’ answers indicate how they’ll look at evidence.

“Some of it is just purely instinctual,” she said.

Lawyers can excuse a certain number of jurors — no questions asked. Jurors can also be excused if they exhibit any type of bias.

Of the jurors interviewed yesterday, 53 returned today and 15 were excused.

Lawyers focused yesterday on how much potential jurors knew about the case. Once sworn in as prospective jurors, they are instructed to avoid all related media coverage.

During questioning, one juror said she’d last read about the case in the courthouse lobby — along with four other prospective jurors. Bailiffs then confiscated five newspapers that had articles about the case and removed all other newspapers from the building.

Those are the kind of problems that make jury selection so important, said Bob Toy, a local lawyer. Some murder cases can spend more than a week just picking a jury and minimizing bias.

While the jurors for the Hendrickson case should be determined by today, Toy said it doesn’t lessen the process’ importance.

“There are a lot of people who say you can win a case based on jury selection alone,” he said.