04-11-2016, 07:02 PM
Jury Selection Began Today
It'll be two years in June since 2-year-old Cooper Harris died in the back of his father's SUV. Jury selection in the murder trial of his father, Justin Ross Harris, began today.
The extensive local and national news coverage of the case from the beginning will make it extremely difficult to find jurors who haven't heard or read about it. Defense attorneys have already asserted in pretrial hearings that some of the media coverage has been sensationalist and misleading and could cause potential jurors to come in with a negative view of their client.
It's not necessary for a juror to have heard nothing about the case, said University of Georgia law professor emeritus Ron Carlson, who's not involved in the case but has followed it from the beginning.
"They may be informed about the case, but the disqualifier is that that knowledge has caused them to form a fixed opinion about guilt or innocence," he said.
Full story: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/jury-selecti...n-georgia/
It'll be two years in June since 2-year-old Cooper Harris died in the back of his father's SUV. Jury selection in the murder trial of his father, Justin Ross Harris, began today.
The extensive local and national news coverage of the case from the beginning will make it extremely difficult to find jurors who haven't heard or read about it. Defense attorneys have already asserted in pretrial hearings that some of the media coverage has been sensationalist and misleading and could cause potential jurors to come in with a negative view of their client.
It's not necessary for a juror to have heard nothing about the case, said University of Georgia law professor emeritus Ron Carlson, who's not involved in the case but has followed it from the beginning.
"They may be informed about the case, but the disqualifier is that that knowledge has caused them to form a fixed opinion about guilt or innocence," he said.
Full story: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/jury-selecti...n-georgia/