Crime

It's Kwame Time: Jury Selection Process Begins This Week in Public Corruption Trial

August 06, 2012, 6:43 AM

Kilpp

It's Kwame time.

Jury selection, not expected to be an easy task, will begin Wednesday in federal court in downtown Detroit for ex-Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, his father Bernard, his close friend Bobby Ferguson and ex-Detroit water chief Victor Mercado.

A pool of about 400 perspective jurors is expected to fill out questionaires for a trial that is slated to begin next month, the Detroit News reports.

Finding an impartial jury will take some serious effort if the previous public corruption trial of Bobby Ferguson is any indication.

During jury selection for trial for Ferguson and his co-defendants, some perspective jurors expressed a distaste for the Kilpatrick regime.

Kilpatrick was not on trial, but his name and his administration came up because of his close ties to Ferguson, a contractor who was charged with rigging a multi-million bid for a contract with the city. The jury ended up deadlocking and a mistrial was declared.

The possibility of moving the Kilpatrick trial to another venue is there, but it's not likely to happen.

Kilpatrick has complained that there are not enough blacks in the jury pool. -- A.L. 


Read more:  Detroit News


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