*Bill Cosby’s defense lawyers accused prosecutors Tuesday of trying to keep black jurors off the mostly white panel that will decide his sexual assault case, reports NBC News.
The charge came after the Montgomery County district attorney’s office used one of its seven peremptory challenges to remove a black woman with a scandal in her past. Defense lawyer Brian McMonagle said that prosecutors had used challenges to remove two black women while accepting white jurors who gave similar answers to questions.
“We believe this is systematic exclusion of African-Americans,” he complained, lodging what’s known as a Batson challenge. Jurors cannot not be excluded on the basis of race or gender.
“We believe it is of paramount importance we seat a diverse jury,” McMonagle said, adding that it would be a “potential horrible problem” if the jury sitting in judgment of the black comedian accused of drugging and molesting a white woman was racially one-sided.
Assistant DA Stewart Ryan denied race was the reason for removing the black woman. He said she had been a Pittsburgh police detective who was charged with falsifying time sheets in a department scandal; the charges were dismissed and she later filed a lawsuit against the city. Her background, Ryan said, sparked concern that she could have a “bias against governmental entities.”
The judge ultimately decided to keep the woman on the anonymous jury because the prosecution had offered a “race-neutral” explanation, though he encouraged the defense to present a statistical analysis of the prosecution’s jury decisions to bolster its claim of whitewashing.
The second day of jury selection ended with 11 people seated, 10 of them white and one of them black. There are seven men and four women, and the hunt for a 12th juror and six alternates continued at press time.
Since jury selection began, 10 black potential jurors have been questioned. One was accepted; seven were dismissed for causes like hardship or having a fixed opinion or being a sexual assault victim; and two were struck by the DA.
There appeared to be a dozen or fewer African-Americans in the first group of 100 potential jurors assembled. A second pool of 100 will be summoned to the courthouse Wednesday for the continuation of jury selection.
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