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Finding a jury pool that remains untainted by the barrage of reports that followed the killing of Botham Jean is the herculean task that Amber Guyger’s defense team is faced with this week.
Jury selection begins Friday for the murder trial of Guyger, the disgraced Dallas cop accused of killing 26-year-old Jean, a promising accountant, in his apartment.
READ MORE: Amber Guyger’s aunt says the fatal shooting death of Botham Jean ‘was not a lynching’
Attorneys have their hands full with the case that has instigated a tense racial dialogue because a white officer killed an unarmed Black man in his own home. So the first task for Guyger’s team and the prosecution is trying to weed out people who already have pre-set biases that include being sympathetic to the Black Lives Matter movement or being pro-police.
According to The Dallas Morning News anyone who has their mind made up or has sympathy for such groups, won’t make the cut. Also, anyone who likely has been the victim of a home invasion will raise eyebrows. They don’t want jurors to sympathize with Guyger who allegedly thought Jean was an intruder in her home, when she actually was on the wrong floor of the complex.
“I certainly would want to know if they’d ever had experiences dealing with a potential home intruder,” said Dallas defense attorney Russell Wilson.
Jurors will answer a series of written questions and then the prosecutor and defense will ask them more. They can be excused for a number of reasons from the jury pool but not for race or gender. Twelve jurors and three alternatives will be chosen.
READ MORE: Alarming and violent posts were uncovered on social media of cop who killed Botham Jean
“I would imagine that the attorneys will be trying to ferret out folks who feel very strongly one way or another on those issues,” Wilson said. “If you have a strong feeling on that, then it could end up disqualifying.”
A Dallas judge has decided that potential jurors in the 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.
The trial begins Sept. 23.