Jury consultant reveals what both sides want in Karmelo Anthony trial jurors

Tuesday evening messages will go out to as many as 250 prospective jurors who will be summoned to face another round of questions tomorrow before a panel of 12 is selected for the Karmelo Anthony murder trial. 

Jury consultants say choosing those 12 people could be the most important decision both sides make during the trial. 

A North Texas jury consultant who's worked on high-profile cases said you might be surprised to learn what type of juror the prosecution and defense attorneys prefer. 

Robert Hirschhorn was hired as a jury consultant when Terry Nichols was accused of being Timothy McVeigh's accomplice in the terror attack on the Oklahoma City federal building. 

He did the same when William Kennedy Smith was accused of rape and when Kay Bailey Hutchison went to trial for criminal ethics charges. 

And he was hired by the defense team representing George Zimmerman, who was tried and acquitted for killing Trayvon Martin in 2012. 

"I call it the reverse of the George Zimmerman case," Hirschhorn said.

Hirschhorn is not involved in the Karmelo Anthony murder trial. But he says he knows what kind of jurors the prosecution and the defense are looking for and it may be what you think. 

"So what the defense wants typically: pro Second Amendment, pro stand your ground, pro gun jurors and I think the defense wants men," he said. "From the prosecution side, really clear: young liberal women ... the exact opposite of what prosecutors typically want."

Hirschhorn said it will be important for both sides to find diversity among jurors since race has become a talking point over what happened last year inside a Frisco stadium, where Anthony fatally stabbed Austin Metcalf with a knife after an altercation during a track meet. 

"It would be good for both sides for this case for this country if we have a representation of not just white jurors, but Black, Hispanic, and Asian jurors; however, many people of color are on the jury, it's better for everybody," said Hirschhorn.

But Hirschhorn doesn't believe race will factor into jury deliberations as much as how they define what self-defense is. 

"Here's the deal," he said. "By the time they get the jury in the box, race is not going to play that big a role in this case, if any at all."

Hirschhorn believes he knows what was in the jury's questionnaire that they had to fill out on Monday. 

"There's going to be questions about their feelings about the Second Amendment, there's going to be questions about whether they've ever been the victim of a violent crime. There's going to be a question about whether or not they ever had to act in self-defense."

Opening statements and evidence won't be presented until Thursday, but Hirschhorn believes the next 24 hours will be the most consequential of the entire trial. 

"It's going to be critically important to this case and to this outcome," he said.