Judge holds on murder trial move for police killing of Botham Jean
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A Dallas judge has decided that potential jurors in the Amber Guyger case need to be questioned first before she will render a decision determining if the high-profile murder trial needs to be moved outside of the city.
State District Judge Tammy Kemp said in a court order on Monday that she won’t rule on that decision until the questioning of the potential jurors determines if the pool is biased due to exposure to the case.
If it is determined “that a fair and impartial jury cannot be selected in Dallas County due the pervasive publicity in this case” then the judge will decide if and where the case will be moved, The Dallas News reports.
The fired Dallas police Officer Guyger, shot and killed unarmed Botham Jean on Sept. 6 when he answered his apartment door.
Last month Guyger’s legal team pushed to get her trial moved out of Dallas, citing media hysteria as a problem that would prevent the fired cop from receiving a fair trial.
—Amber Guyger’s aunt says the fatal shooting death of Botham Jean ‘was not a lynching’—
However, The Dallas Morning News analyzed data and found that moving the murder trial to one of the five counties they are seeking, will render a whiter, more conservative jury pool, especially in Collin, Ellis, Fannin, Grayson, Kaufman and Rockwall counties.
Next month, jury selection will commence starting Sept. 6, which is the anniversary of Jean’s death.
The trial is scheduled to start Sept. 23.
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