A second set of 75 prospective jurors is being questioned in a Baltimore court for the first trial of a city police officer stemming from Freddie Gray's death.
Today is the second day of jury selection for the trial of Officer William Porter, one of six officers charged in the case, which led to protests and rioting and added fuel to the Black Lives Matter movement.
On Monday, Judge Barry Williams questioned about 75 prospective jurors. A second group of 75 are being questioned Tuesday. On Wednesday, some of the potential jurors from each group is expected to advance to a second round of questioning.
In all 75 potential jurors were questioned for about an hour in open court this morning.
Like Monday, more than half of the jurors, in this case 46, had said either they or a member of their family said they were a victim of a crime, or had been arrested or investigated by police.
Legal experts say that doesn’t automatically disqualify a person from the jury, but it does mean those jurors will face more questions behind closed doors.
There were two jurors, a black man and a black woman who both said they knew Freddie Gray.
That black man also said that he knew several witnesses and had strong feelings on the charges against Officer Porter, and that the race or sex of the defendant mattered. He also was among 14 potential jurors who either has been employed or had an immediate family member employed by law enforcement.
In all 22 jurors said they had strong feelings about the assault and manslaughter charges facing Officer Porter.
Eleven potential jurors said they would give more or less weight to the testimony of a police officer.
These prospective jurors will be questioned individually behind closed doors for much of the day. Judge Barry Williams and the attorneys will question the jurors about some of their earlier answers.
Before the open court session ended, Judge Williams told jurors that the case could state in the next few days. Yesterday, the judge told jurors the testimony county begin in "a day or two.",
The judge repeated a promise he made to jurors yesterday, that the trial would end no later than December 17.
That deadline was set in response to jurors who say they cannot serve because they have holiday vacation plans, or cannot sit still in court for at least an hour because of a medical condition. Twelve potential jurors said they fit into that category.
On Monday, Williams conducted initial questioning in the marble-walled courtroom, and then interviewed dozens of the prospective jurors in a private conference room. The large jury pool suggests how difficult the selection process could prove to be.
Gray was a 25-year-old black man who died April 19 of a severe spinal injury he received while in police custody.
Porter, who is also black, is accused of failing to get medical help for Gray during several stops made by the police van that carried Gray on a 45-minute trip. At the end, officers found Gray unresponsive. He was taken to a hospital and died a week later.
The officer is being tried first in part because prosecutors want to use him as a witness in the trials of several other officers. He is charged with manslaughter, assault, misconduct and reckless endangerment.
The judge asked potential jurors Monday if any of them had not heard about the case, the citywide curfew imposed after Gray's death or the $6.4 million settlement the city paid to his family. No one responded.
The same was true today.
Williams read aloud more than 200 names of possible witnesses, a list that included more than 100 Baltimore police officers, lawyers and prosecutors.
Unlike yesterday, only a handful of demonstrators were outside of the courtroom. Unlike yesterday their chants could not be heard in the courtroom.
On Monday, a small group of protesters gathered outside the downtown courthouse. Their chants of "All night, all day, we will fight for Freddie Gray," could be heard throughout the morning proceedings.
Another demonstration began Monday evening before the court wrapped up its work for the day. People rallied outside the courthouse and later marched to the Inner Harbor, then past Baltimore's World Trade Center office tower and the National Aquarium and on to City Hall. One carried a sign that read, "Stop the War on Black America." A woman led a chant of "If we don't get it," with people responding, "shut it down."
Source WBAL
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