Jury picked in Poutre abuse trial

Photo/The Springfield Republican
Jason Strickland, center, confers with his attorneys Alan J. Black,
left, and Richard J. Rubin during a hearing in Hampden Superior Court in Springfield last month.

By Patricia Wen, Globe Staff

SPRINGFIELD -- Opening statements will begin tomorrow in the child-abuse case against Jason Strickland, a Westfield man accused of participating in the near-fatal beating of his step-daughter, Haleigh Poutre.

By late this afternoon, prosecutors and defense attorneys had agreed on a panel of 14 jurors, including two alternates who would hear evidence in this criminal case that is expected to last two or three weeks. The panel was picked from a pool of about 250 prospective jurors in Hampden County Superior Court who were questioned over three days about their ability to be impartial in this high-profile case.

Earlier today, Judge Judd Carhart denied a motion from prosecutors to bar the media from showing photographs or video of Haleigh that may be shown during the trial.

This case received nationwide attention when Haleigh nearly died in September 2005 from an alleged brutal head injury suffered in her Westfield home, and then when the state nearly pulled her life support while she was unconscious.

Haleigh, now 14, remains a patient in a pediatric rehabilitation hospital in Brighton after suffering severe head injuries. She has recovered to the point of being able to speak simple sentences, and she attends a day school connected to the hospital.

Prosecutors have said they will not call her as a witness; however the defense said they are still undecided on the issue.

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