Voir dire has finally been completed and a jury has finally been selected for the trial of George Zimmerman, accused of second degree murder in the death of Trayvon Martin.
The jury consists of 5 white women and one Hispanic woman.
The prosecution did itself no favors today by trying to exclude white women from the jury completely simply because of their race. After 4 women in a row were rejected by the prosecutions after no questions except their names, Zimmerman's attorney Mark O'Mara succeeded in getting the judge to rule in favor of race/gender neutral selection.
O'Mara rejected one black woman juror after finding she knows someone involved in the case and had posted jury summons on Facebook, something the prosecution agreed to.
In Florida, only crimes with the possibility of a death sentence merit 12 jurors. George Zimmerman faces a maximum sentence of life, Although, don't ask me why six rather than an odd number...
The judge, Debra Nelson has still not ruled yet on whether expert testimony about a recording of screams heard on 911 calls made during the struggle will be allowed.
The prosecutors want their expert to testify it was Martin screaming on the calls. Several expert for Zimmerman's defense have said there is not enough audio to determine who the screams are coming from, and that trying to determine that from what's on the tape contradicts all standard procedure. That ruling will likely come tomorrow.
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