SAN DIEGO -- The jury that took 10 days to convict David Westerfield of kidnapping and murdering Danielle van Dam now has spent four days trying to decide if he should be executed or spend the rest of his life behind bars.

WESTERFIELD TRIAL Judge William Mudd Issues Death Penalty Sentence Hear Jury's Death Penalty Recommendation Watch The Jury's Verdict Being Read Share Your Thoughts DANIELLE VAN DAM 1994-2002 Watch Danielle Video Montage E-mail: daniellevandam @yahoo.com Send mail to: P.O. Box 501515 San Diego, 92150

"These jurors are being called upon to make the biggest decision of their lives as it impacts someone else," criminal defense attorney Kerry Steigerwalt said.

"They have to live with it themselves ... they don't want to regret what they do," Steigerwalt said.

Video

Jury Did Not Ask For Anything Special Monday

The choice before the jurors is whether to have Westerfield, 50, die by injection -- after years of appeals -- or spend the rest of his life without the possibility of parole. With the pace of executions in California, some doubt whether Westerfield would ever be put to death -- given the backlog of death row cases -- before dying of natural causes.

Another local attorney, Robert Grimes, said the jury has to work for "about four or five days to give just the appearance of being serious" about the deliberations.

"It's clear to me some jurors want that ultimate price to be paid," Steigerwalt said. He believes the jury would have already come back had there not been "a powerful force" arguing for death.

If the jury does not return a verdict by Tuesday, that would indicate balloting had taken place with disagreements involving "personal moral codes" concerning the death penalty, Grimes said.

In his experience, disagreements among jurors are solved much more easily when deciding guilt or innocence than in determining life or death, Grimes said.

Grimes also believes there could be internal pressure among jurors to try to finish before Wednesday, the anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Most of the jurors' time, the attorneys agreed, is probably being spent on going through a list of aggravating and mitigating factors outlined during penalty phase arguments and instructions.

Among others, those factors include the presence or absence of prior felony convictions and the defendant's age.

"They don't just add up the numbers," Grimes said. "You can give more or less weight to any factor."

The biggest factor, though, is the crime, Grimes said. Jurors will have to evaluate evidence presented in penalty phase testimony, and go over old ground from the guilt phase.

Steigerwalt said the jury also will consider something that didn't happen -- neither of Westerfield's ex-wives testified during the penalty phase.

"Who knows (Westerfield) better than an ex-spouse?" Steigerwalt asked. "If they had anything beneficial to say, they would have been called."