by Matt Saldaña
June 2, 2007
After another 10-hour day of jury examination, air-conditioning and tears, U.S. District Judge Henry Wingate reduced the jury pool in the James Ford Seale federal kidnapping trial to 34—two more than the minimum needed to begin the juror striking process on Monday. After completing that process at 10 a.m., Wingate will hear opening statements beginning at 1 p.m. on June 4 in the federal courthouse in Jackson.
On Friday, the individual voir dire process again revealed jury candidates’ dark secrets—about violence, racial hatred, and decades of repressed memory—as they spoke into a microphone from the corner of the jury box in a leather chair that began to resemble a therapist’s couch.
[View the entire article at The Jackson Free Press Road to Meadville blog.]