The judge and attorneys trying to select jurors in the trial over Ahmaud Arbery’s killing aren’t finding many prospects with a “blank slate.” Some remain in the jury pool despite already knowing a lot about what happened, or the people involved.
The judge, prosecutors and defense attorneys have questioned 71 pool members since jury selection began Monday. After dismissing those with personal hardships or unshakable biases, 23 were deemed qualified to advance. Dozens more will be needed before a final jury of 12 plus four alternates can be seated.
“The operative question is: Is your opinion so fixed that you couldn’t get a fair trial?” said Dixon, who’s not involved in the case. “The reality is, who knows? But if they say those magic words, the judge may not disqualify them.” If a jury gets seated in Glynn County, where 1,000 jury duty notices were mailed, the case will ultimately be decided by people for whom the slaying hit much closer to home.
Not everyone called to jury duty has been preoccupied by Arbery’s killing. A self-employed woman said she refused to listen when her husband tried to discuss the case and said she goes “out of my way not to read news or politics.”Others have been disqualified for seeming too engaged. The judge dismissed a woman who said she believes she saw Arbery running near her home not long before he was killed.
She told the judge and attorneys she did not have a strong opinion about the case. What little opinion she offered was not sympathetic.
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