Jury Selection Begins in Hans Reiser Civil Case

San Francisco lawyers from Morrison & Foerster are working pro bono on behalf of Hans Reiser's two children, a 12-year-old son and an 11-year-old daughter,

Jury selection began Monday in Hayward in a wrongful death suit against Hans Reiser, who was convicted four years ago for the murder of his wife.

Court ended before 1:30 p.m., but the full jury is expected to be chosen Tuesday, which is also when opening statements in the trial could start, according to the plaintiff's attorney, Arturo Gonzalez.

Gonzalez's San Francisco firm, Morrison & Foerster, is working pro bono on behalf of Reiser's two children, a 12-year-old son and an 11-year-old daughter, seeking unspecified damages for wrongful death and negligent infliction of emotional distress, according to Wired.com.

Reiser was convicted by an Alameda County jury in 2008 for the first-degree murder of his wife, Nina, two years earlier. In that case, Reiser and his legal team had argued that his wife was not dead, but had left her children to sneak away to Russia. The jury didn't buy that story.

Weeks after his conviction, Reiser, the developer of the ReiserFS filesystem, led authorities to his wife's body hidden in the Oakland hills for a reduced term of 15-years-to-life in prison instead of 25.

His new story, according to documents, is that he killed his wife to prevent her from killing their children. According to Wired, he plans to tell his story wearing his Pleasant Valley State Prison jail smocks and acting as his own attorney.

The children are living with their maternal grandparents in Russia.

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