Cook County Judge Vincent M. Gaughan excused several prospective jurors for hardship Thursday as jury selection in the James Degorski murder trial continued Thursday at Chicago's Criminal Courts Building.

The dismissed jurors included a man whose mother had recently been diagnosed with brain cancer; a man unemployed since December, who was offered a two-month consulting contract earlier this week that he would lose if he served as a juror; a single mother and full-time graduate student who has no available child care and a project manager for a commercial real estate firm who said she didn't think her conscience would not allow her to impose the death penalty.

Those still under consideration for the Degorski jury include a mechanic in his mid twenties and a corrections officer who has worked at Cook County Jail for seven years.

Degorski, 36, is charged with first-degree murder in the 1993 slayings of seven people at a Palatine Brown's Chicken and Pasta. Degorski's co-defendant, Juan Luna, was convicted of the murders in 2007 and sentenced to life in prison.

Eight jurors have been impaneled since the process began Monday. Four more remain to be seated along with alternates. Jury selection continues Friday.