The process of selecting 12 men and women, plus several alternates, to be an impartial jury for Guy Turcotte's second trial began in the St. Jerome courthouse Monday.

Turcotte, who is out on bail, walked silently into the court room Monday and sat in the prisoner’s box to watch the proceedings.

With millions of Quebecers aware of the 2009 killings of five-year-old Olivier and three-year old Anne-Sophie, as well as the verdict in the first trial, the justice system is not attempting to find people who are ignorant of the case.

Instead potential jurors will be asked if they have an opinion of the case, and if so, are they mentally able to set that opinion aside in order to hear the evidence in toto.

"We need to get an impartial jury that they will judge with an open mind, without any preconceived ideas, so we want to make sure to get this jury with 12 people," said Jean-Pascal Boucher, a spokesperson for the Crown.

On Monday morning Justice Andre Vincent said it will be difficult, not impossible, to find the people needed for the criminal trial. The process is expected to take weeks.

A total of 1650 people received a summons to appear at the St. Jerome courthouse, and this week the judge will hear from all those who require exemptions, such as those who are in the military, are police officers or are married to police officers.

Other reasons for exemptions include having young children or other overbearing family responsibilities.

Next week, on Tuesday, lawyers will begin interviewing the potential jurors who were not automatically exempted in order to find the final dozen.

The new jury will not hear what was said in the first trial.

“The actual evidence is strictly is going to be the evidence presented in the retrial, that is what jury will be allowed to hear,” explained legal expert Andrew Barbacki.

The first witnesses are expected to testify at the end of September and the trial is expected to wrap up at the end of December.  

“The Crown has 30 witnesses, so we'll see in the next few weeks. They will have to testify in court that was the information given in front of the court this morning,” said Barbacki.

Turcotte is standing trial again because Quebec's Court of Appeal ruled in 2013 that the judge for the first trial had made an error when issuing directives to the jury.

In that trial, Turcotte was found not criminally responsible for the double homicide.