Well, during voir dire, the jurors would be questioned about their knowledge of the case, if they have certain expectations about how a husband with a missing wife might act, and if they have drawn any conclusions about the case. If indeed a potential juror already believes that it is "overwhelmingly likely" that Barry Morphew is involved in Suzanne's disappearance -- as MassGuy indicated, unless I'm misconstruing his post -- then the defense could (and IMHO, should) ask for the panel member to be dismissed for cause. This is because the fact that the potential juror already views guilt as "overwhelmingly likely" could reasonably endanger the defendant's right to an impartial jury.
Oh, so you were talking about jury selection. In the trials I've watched (many) rarely does a juror tell the Court outright that they cannot be impartial. It does happen, but it's rare.
Every single juror is asked by the Judge, after they attempt to get out of jury duty by mentioning some bias of theirs. In fact, last time I was called for duty, I sat next to a criminal defense attorney who argued that he had biases toward the defense because of his job.
Judge looked him right in the eye and said more or less, "Are you saying that you are incapable of being rational and fair in regards to evidence presented in this court?" Attorney hesitated, then said, "No, your honor." Judge: "So you are capable of rationality and following the instructions of the Court?" "Yes, your honor" Judge "Please have a seat in the jury box."
Very few jurors will say during voir dire "Yeah, I heard this Barry person was guilty and I believe it. I do not think anything could change my mind." Very few attorneys or judges use language like "Do you, Mr. Jones, think it is
overwhelmingly likely that Barry Morphew is guilty?" There's a standard questionnaire that every juror fills out, which asks about which media they use (surprisingly little news reading going on these days). Then the defense attorney will obviously ask if they've been following the coverage (there's virtually no local coverage or any other kind of coverage in this case so far).
I worked as a jury consultant for about a decade, for both prosecution and defense.
If the bar becomes, "Have you heard gossip that BM may have killed his wife?" then I suppose the defense will have to file for a change of venue, because obviously, all the adults in this small town (where the courthouse is) will have heard that, as well as probably every adult in the whole county.
I do not think jury selection will be a problem. I think most people know that they set aside any rumors or preconceptions when they enter that box and most Judges ask exactly that. At any rate, the defense can only disqualify a limited number of jurors and the cause has to be more than, "Yeah, I've heard of Barry - he's the one whose wife went missing"
