February 14, 1996
Web posted at: 11:40 a.m. EST
From Correspondent Gary Tuchman
BROOKLINE, Massachusetts (CNN) -- It was a rather unusual way to start the high-profile murder trial of John Salvi.
A busload of jurors, under police escort, traveled 30 minutes from the courthouse in Dedham, Massachusetts, to the two clinics in Brookline where two receptionists were killed and five people hurt in 1994.
Silently, they filed into the Planned Parenthood clinic where abortions are still performed. Cameras were not allowed inside. The clinic's reception desk is where prosecutors say Shannon Lowney, 25, became Salvi's first victim. Opening statements in his trial began Wednesday.
The jurors were then brought to the other clinic two miles away on the very same street. It was there where they saw the part of the clinic where the second victim, Lee Ann Nichols, 38, was killed. One reporter was allowed to go along for this "jury view."
WCVB reporter Amalia Barreda said prosecutor Marianne Hinkle instructed the jurors to take note of their surroundings. (170K AIFF sound or 170K WAV sound)
The jurors also walked one-half block from one of the clinics where at least one witness will testify he saw Salvi on the day of the killings. (179K AIFF sound or 179K WAV sound)
Salvi, who chose not go on the tour, was quiet in court on Tuesday, a far cry from one day last week during jury selection when he flipped over a table, angry that he wasn't allowed to give a message to the media. The judge Wednesday ruled against defense attorneys by agreeing to allow one still photographer to remain in the courtroom. Television cameras and recording devices already have been banned.
Salvi's attorneys hope the jury finds their client not guilty by reason of insanity. They claim he suffers from paranoid schizophrenia and did not know right from wrong at the time of the shootings.
Salvi's parents, who publicly apologized to the families of the victims last year on behalf of their son, were present during most of the weeklong jury selection process. They were often tearful as their son ignored them.
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