SMITHFIELD — Twelve Johnston County citizens have been selected to decide whether Lynn Paddock is guilty of first-degree murder in the death of her 4-year-old adoptive son Sean.

Lawyers will search for two alternate jurors Friday morning before hearing opening arguments in the trial.

Four men and eight women will decide her fate. Paddock could spend the rest of her life in jail if convicted of first-degree murder.

The jurors are parents and grandparents, a musician and a biologist. For a day and a half, prosecutors and Paddock's lawyers grilled potential jurors about how they disciplined their children and where they went to Church on Sundays.

Both religion and child-rearing are central to the case against Paddock. Paddock and her husband Johnny have adopted six foster children since 1996. Sean was the youngest of her brood.

As Paddock's household grew, she sought advice on how to control her children. She turned to the guidance of Michael Pearl, an evangelical minister from Tennessee who writes books teaching parents how to rear Godly, submissive children. She collected his literature in notebooks and chatted online with other parents about parenting techniques.

The oldest of her adopted children turned on her earlier this week, telling a judge that Paddock whipped them with plastic plumbing pipe, withheld food and forced them to exercise for hours on end.

Sean died by suffocation after being wrapped so tightly in blankets that he couldn't breathe. Paddock told deputies that she bound him to keep the boy from wandering through their farmhouse at night.