It was among Superior Court Judge Lance Ito's toughest calls: a prospective alternate juror who thought O.J. Simpson was not guilty but insisted he could put those views aside and judge the case on the facts.
"I don't mean this to be a sexist comment," the judge said, "but man-to-man: Are you being straight with me on this?""Yes," the man said, "I am."
And so he stayed. Ito turned down a prosecution request to dismiss the man for cause and allowed him - and five others who made the cut Wednesday - to return Dec. 5 for peremptory challenges, when a final panel of 15 alternates probably will be picked. Two prospects were dismissed.
The one-on-one questioning ended the truncated court week, which will resume Monday.
Having finished the grueling task of seating 12 jurors last week - but with opening statements still two months away - the lawyers and judge are in the early stages of picking alternates from a pool of about 100 people to hear the case against Simpson, who is charged with murdering his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron-ald Goldman.
The questioning has been long and tiring. Everyone in the courtroom was getting punchy Wednesday.
Ito followed his serious "man-to-man" question with a considerably lighter query of the same man, who said he didn't think Simpson was guilty because he could have easily fled to Canada when he was in Chicago the morning after the killings.