By: Meghann Cuniff
Attorneys will give opening statements Wednesday in longtime Los Angeles politician Mark Ridley-Thomas’ federal criminal trial after 12 jurors and six alternates were seated late Tuesday afternoon.
The 18 jurors include several people of color, including two men who are Black. Ridley-Thomas’ lawyers raised concerns that prosecutors were wrongly targeting Black potential jurors. One said the case “is about race” because it involves a “prominent Black politician,” and prosecutors extensively questioned two potential Black jurors.
But U.S. District Judge Dale Fischer said prosecutors had “race-neutral explanations” for wanting to strike them from the pool that she believes are credible. She also said the jury pool had the most “non-Caucasian” people she’s ever seen in a jury pool.
“I’m going to follow the law, and the composition of the final jury is the composition of the final jury,” she said. She earlier had prohibited attorneys from researching potential jurors on the Internet.
Read her full article here.
